British Astronomical Association

Supporting amateur astronomers since 1890


Gallery

Observers

Objects

Sky map

Histogram

FAQs

Search

Observation by Nick James: Chang'e 5 spacecraft near the Moon

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2020 Nov 26 - 21:05

Uploaded

2020 Nov 26 - 22:17

Objects

The Moon
Spacecraft

Planetarium overlay









Constellation

Aries

Field centre

RA: 02h49m
Dec: +13°26'
Position angle: -0°28'

Field size

0°32' × 0°23'

Exposure

37x60s

Location

Chelmsford, UK

Target name

Chang'e 5 (2020-087A)

Title

Chang'e 5 spacecraft near the Moon

About this image

This very grotty image was taken in a bright sky caused by a combination of fog and the proximity of the Moon. It shows the track of the Chinese Chang'e 5 spacecraft (2020-087A) as it approaches its Moon landing. At the time this was taken the spacecraft was around 350,000 km away but it was glinting as bright as 8th-9th magnitude (uncertain since it saturated my camera). You can see a timelapse of this here. The Moon landing should occur in the next couple of days.

The booster (2020-087B) is not in this field but it is also visible at the moment. It's trajectory will return it to Earth for a re-entry on November 30. 

Files associated with this observation
Like this image
Copyright of all images and other observations submitted to the BAA remains with the owner of the work. Reproduction of work by third parties is expressly forbidden without the consent of the copyright holder. By submitting images to this online gallery, you grant the BAA permission to reproduce them in any of our publications.

© British Astronomical Association 2025

Registered charity no. 210769
Registered company no. 117572

For more information including contact details, click here.

Our Terms of Use are here.

Our Privacy Policy is here.

The BAA image gallery was designed and
built by Dominic Ford.

Image gallery software © Dominic Ford 2020–2024