August was already an exciting month for astronomy lovers, but on Wednesday it became even more extraordinary thanks to a rare coincidence in space communication caught by a European Space Agency (ESA) live webcam.
Live astronomical communication
The night of 30 August saw the appearance of a spectacular super blue moon, meaning that it was the second full moon in a month and also coincided with the moment the moon was at the closest point possible to earth in its orbit (354,917 kilometres).
The rare phenomenon was monitored by ESA's New Norcia space antenna in Western Australia. Among other things, the New Norcia antenna provides ground support to India's Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module, which successfully landed on the moon on 23 August.
During the super blue moon on Wednesday, the New Norcia antenna began its regular data exchange session with the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module while tracking the moon's progress across the sky. In an extremely rare occurrence, a live webcam pointed at the New Norcia antenna managed to catch the entire three-and-a-half hour communication.
"A super blue moon is rare, a moon landing is rare, ESA ground stations supporting a mission on the surface of the moon is rare, and the moon being visible in the New Norcia webcam for a prolonged period of time is very rare," the ESA announced on 31 August.
The Agency released an accelerated version of the rare video, as seen below.
ESA's New Norcia deep space antenna chasing Chandrayaan and the super blue moon on 30 August. Credit: European Space Agency
