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Here’s a little diversion from work…. Where is the Lunar Arctic Circle? Could we see the moon looking due north from anywhere near Palmer, Alaska, our home town? Is the lunar Arctic Circle nearby, where there’s a day the moon never sets? You’d think after fifty years I’d know that answer, or someone would have a picture. After a bit of research, I found out it is indeed theoretically possible to see the moon due north from latitudes as low as Anchorage, but the chances are extremely rare and nobody has yet documented it. There are probably only half a dozen good viewing days left in 2006 to observe this phenomenon, and then we might have to wait 17 or more years for as good a chance. For a description of the problem, complete with figures, tables, maps, links, and excruciating detail, download Lunar Arctic Circle4.pdf. This file is 1.7 megs and not for the timid. For a table listing the best dates and times to try to observe the phenomenon this winter, 2006-2007, download Winter 06 Moon Due North.pdf. This includes predictions from the Naval Observatory and the NASA and Virtual Moon Atlas ephemerides along with my own notes. To see an annotated photo looking north from the Glenn Alps hillside south of Anchorage, download Looking North.doc. For other locations, a compass should help you find true north.

AlaskChem Engineering, Ralph Hulbert, P.E.
PO Box 1846, Palmer AK 99645; phone (907)746-4587; email hulbert@alaska.net