Radio observations of the lunar atmosphere

Observations of a lunar occultation of a radio source may provide information concerning both the distribution of radio “brightness” across the source and its accurate position. For sources of which these results are already fairly well known, observations at long wavelengths may be used to derive the density of the lunar atmosphere [1]. During recent years two such occultations have been observed at Cambridge: one, the occultation of IC 443, the large-diameter radio source in the constellation of Gemini, from which the density of the lunar atmosphere was estimated to be less than 10–12 of that of the density of the terrestrial atmosphere [2] and [3]; and two, the occultation of the Crab nebula on 1956 January 24 [4].