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This station continues to receive reports that the Moon is not occupying the position our tables assign to it. Independent observatories are comparing notes, and for the moment the only thing they agree on is that their measurements do not agree. We are still treating this as a monitoring event, but the number of conflicting observations is no longer small enough to dismiss.
Calls are now coming in from coastal services, flight crews, ships at sea, and ordinary listeners who all insist they are looking at different conditions overhead. Some report the Moon larger, some smaller, some brighter, some barely changed. Tide markers are beginning to drift from expectation in more than one region, and the first advisories are being drafted where that drift is no longer negligible.
There was a brief period this afternoon when several major observatories reported the Moon had returned to its expected position. That statement has since been revised. Tide data, satellite tracking, and later observations do not support the earlier correction, and no agency is prepared to say whether the discrepancy is in the orbit, the instruments, or the act of observing itself. We continue to monitor, to compare, and to relay only what can be verified.
By WTLEB 1720 AMThis station continues to receive reports that the Moon is not occupying the position our tables assign to it. Independent observatories are comparing notes, and for the moment the only thing they agree on is that their measurements do not agree. We are still treating this as a monitoring event, but the number of conflicting observations is no longer small enough to dismiss.
Calls are now coming in from coastal services, flight crews, ships at sea, and ordinary listeners who all insist they are looking at different conditions overhead. Some report the Moon larger, some smaller, some brighter, some barely changed. Tide markers are beginning to drift from expectation in more than one region, and the first advisories are being drafted where that drift is no longer negligible.
There was a brief period this afternoon when several major observatories reported the Moon had returned to its expected position. That statement has since been revised. Tide data, satellite tracking, and later observations do not support the earlier correction, and no agency is prepared to say whether the discrepancy is in the orbit, the instruments, or the act of observing itself. We continue to monitor, to compare, and to relay only what can be verified.