Fireworks on the Moon...

scheduled for early this Friday morning (9 October) when two objects intentionally strike the south pole of our nearest neighbor. Projected lunar impact occurs at ~ 11:31:30 UT (4:31:30 am PDT.)

Here's the one-stop shopping for information about this flashy experiment:

• LCROSS Mission Overview
• LCROSS Viewer's Guide, a readable summary of the experiment
• NASA's LCROSS Strategy & Astronomer Observation Campaign site for serious observers

My plans? I'll likely be out in my backyard observatory, in a puffy down jacket with a steaming hot cup of java, peering intently through the eyepiece of my telescope like countless other astro geeks at time zero.

But I'll also TiVo the NASA television feed of the event just in case I don't catch the two flashes with my own eyes. Always a good idea to have a Plan B.