Nice chain of craters, newer upon older, leading up to crater Beaumont, northwest of Theophillus.

I don't get it either. The smallest of telescopes show more detail on the Moon than large amateur telescopes show on any other object. It's out in every season, and only a handful of days/nights during the lunar cycle is it not visible at all. It shines through haze and slight cloud cover, allowing for study on nights when nothing else is available. Unlike individual stars, nearly everybody on the planet is aware of the Moon, and probably has a memory of some moonlit night. I've seen things of interest on the Moon through binoculars, and have used 16" of aperture to push outrageous magnification. It's all enjoyable. One of these days I'm going to be an expert on our companion. It's much easier to share a vast knowledge of the Moon than of faint galaxies.


I think I'm going to use this thread to share some lunar observations, especially when a run of cloudy nights like this gives me time to go through old pictures and find cool stuff. My hope is to get deep sky observers to take a look at Luna, and help current lunar observers become better lunar observers, starting with myself.

Let's start with last Sunday morning's Moon. I was observing at home from roughly 4 AM until 5:30 AM. Seeing conditions were bad, but there were moments when for a split second everything was still and clear. I was fighting the last scattered clouds of a system that kept me from going to Conway for the night. These aren't great photographs, but that's not the point. The point is to show places of interest while exploring the Moon through a telescope.





For orientation, a shot of most of the visible lunar surface. It was slightly past third quarter, a waning crescent Moon. North is to the right and a little down; south is to the left and a little up.





We'll start with the easy area around the craters Eratosthenes and Copernicus. Eratosthenes is just ahead of the terminator, it's 35 mile rim fully illuminated, and it's almost 11,000 ft. floor in deep shadow. The Montes Apenninus (Apennine Mountains) taper off just to the north of Eratosthenes. Some of the Apennines jut into sunlight even on the night side of the terminator.

North of Copernicus lie Montes Carpatus (Carpathian Mountains). It's not clear (to me) if the Carpathians were once part of the Apennines, or are a unique range. They lie along the same basin rim as the Apeninnes, and it's conceivable that Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers) to the north, or Mare Insularum (Sea of Islands) to the south could have washed away mountains between these two ranges. Rays from the young crater Copernicus can be seen faintly in the distance, but are dimming as the Sun is setting.





Here we start to get an idea of terraced inner walls of Copernicus, although in the bad seeing, it was hard to capture. Again, the Carpathian Mountains lie to the north (down). The Carpathians seem to be almost a jumble of random debris. The small nine mile wide crater Gay-Lussac A lies in the valley between Copernicus and the Carpathian Mountains.







Let's head north. The great walled plain (a crater that has been flooded with lava from underneath, and a relatively smooth, shallow floor) was placed right along the terminator. The very western floor is is daylight, as is the western rim. This is a rim that is fun to explore under low lighting and high magnification, revealing different heights along the rim. South of Plato are Montes Teneriffe, with Mons Pico, at the western end standing some 7300 ft. Montes Teneriffe appears to be just a large debris field, unlike the Apennines, which clearly delineate a basin rim. South of the Teneriffes is Mare Imbrium. North of Plato is Mare Frio (the Sea of Cold) and east is Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows), both of which we shall come back to.





Notice the debris field running east of Plato, separating Mare Frio from Mare Imbrium. Small craters like Le Verrier and Helicon dot Mare Imbrium.





Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows0 is one of my favorite lunar features. Montes Jura (Jura Mountains) are all that is left of a rather large, ancient basin. What's left of the basin measures 157x242 miles. The Juras reach as high as 18,000 ft. Along the Jura Mts./Sinus Iridum wall is the moderate sized crater Bianchini. One comes across many craters straddling the rim of an older feature on the Moon, but this is possibly the most visibly striking.








In the extreme northern latitudes we find a pair of very large, but largely ignored craters, John Herschel, and Pythagoras. While J. Herschel measures 94 miles across, foreshortening near the limb makes it seem smaller, and the deteriorated condition of the crater rim makes it a challenging target. Pythagoras is somewhat smaller than J. Herschel, but much younger, and in better condition. Indeed, for being so close to the limb, I was getting very good views of Pythagoras and it's central peak.





The extreme north of the Moon. Again, due to foreshortening, sometimes it is challenging just to be able to identify the features seen.





Let's move to the south side of the Moon. There's a lot going on in the south, sometimes too much. While the north of the Moon has many maria and mountain ranges to explore, the southern hemisphere in many places is crater upon crater upon crater. It's much easier to get lost, and I admit, I'm a bit of a novice in some of the more formidable regions.

Take a look at the picture above of a rather wide field shot of the region before we zoom in. At the southern end of Mare Nubium, near the terminator, we see the washed out crater Pitatus. Following down the terminator we find a mix of small and medium sized craters until coming to the large walled plain Clavius.





Exploring the southeastern shore of Mare Nubium we see many craters that have been flooded from below by the mare lava. The rims of Wurzelbauer, Capuanus, Mercator, and Campanus have mostly survived the flooding, but Pitatus and Weiss, especially in the north, have been washed away by the flooding. Off in the distance we see the double, or possibly even triple crater formation of Hainzel.







Continuing south, we find that Wilhelm and Longomontanus, just east of the well known crater Tycho, also have flooded floors.





The 136 mile wide Clavius would be a very interesting study if placed neared the lunar equator. Being so far south, foreshortening again somewhat hinders observing. However, there is still some detail to be seen here. The crater Porter sits on Clavius's northwestern rim, and crater Rutherford along the south rim. Smaller crater can be seen within Clavius. Being such a huge formation, it's easy to think that Clavius's walls are relatively short. While the floor may not be as deep as nearby Tycho, the walls look like they are nearly as tall.


Being so cold Sunday morning, my time at the eyepiece was more limited than on warmer nights. Getting images and going through them to extract greater detail later was a fun distraction while I await clear skies and an evening Moon.


I should credit the Virtual Moon Atlas for most of the information in this post. I use a wide variety of sources when viewing the Moon, but VMA is what I use most when I'm observing at home or at Conway Observatory. It's a free download, and I highly recommend it.

My quote of the year. Polls are still open a few more days, but I'm not sure what can unseat it now that Kim Jong-Il has passed.

If there's something wrong with you, from my perspective it sure ain't a passion for lunar observation. I admire it immensely.

Well, well. I found some pictures from a month ago that were all ready to post, but never got around to it. These are from the evening of February 25, when Luna was in conjunction with Venus, both climbing towards eventual conjunctions with Jupiter.







Keep in mind that the following images are mirror reversed by the optic of the 16" LX200.

Let's start in the low southern latitudes around Langrenus and Petavius.







In Mare Fecunditatis there are nice dorsa, ridges running through the plain, including Dorsa Geikie.




Langrenus shows worn and terraced crater walls.


South of Langrenus, at the southern shore of Mare Fecunditatis we find Petavius, another large crater, with ancient looking, terraced walls. Along the floor of Petavius are several ridges, most notably Rimae Petavius.







Going back north on this 4 day old crescent we find the large Mare Crisium. Crisium seems to have been formed by a huge impact. The southeast rim looks fairly well defined, but in other areas, the shore of the mare have washed away the rim, and extends out to surrounding craters, especially in the west. In the 375x345 mile wide floor of Crisium we find younger craters and rilles (ridges).







Getting into the higher northern latitudes on this thin crescent, foreshortening from both latitude and longitude makes it more difficult to discern detail. Here we see the northwest of the crescent Moon.







And the same to the south.







The thin evening crescent doesn't have the plethora of observable features that other phases show, or very much time to observe them before setting, but I still feel there is plenty to explore on our companion world any time she is up. Hopefully I've pointed out a few things to look for when the crescent Moon comes back around next month.


I have a session from last Wednesday night coming soon.

Awesome.

For member observing nights at Conway this year, I tried to have a theme or suggested observing. The observatory gets awfully lonely when the Moon is up, so as much as I could I scheduled the nights where the Moon wouldn't interfere much. I'm hoping to be out of town at the Indiana Family Star Party again this year for July's new Moon weekend. The only weekend I could schedule for a members night was a weekend with a big, bright Moon, and I'm hoping I can get some members out there looking at Luna. I love pushing crazy magnification with the 16", even though it doesn't translate into great images. Visually, though, it's like looking down from an Apollo command module. ;D

So Paulie, you inspired me. ;D

I took that 1958 Tasco refractor out tonight during Earth hour, and snapped a photo of Luna through the eyepiece using my smartphone. I don't think I did too badly considering it was a handheld shot through an old scope. But the point is that I went out and observed - despite the clouds, despite the chilly weather.



Normally I'd look at the Moon and think, "Meh, I've got other stuff to do," but tonight I looked outside and thought, "I'm going to go look at the Moon even if it's the only thing I can see" (which turned out to be true). And I'm glad I did. The detail was amazing, and that old Tasco throws up some darn sharp images too.

The great thing about astronomy is that it’s essentially free. Sure, we’ve all invested decent sums of money on telescopes and other observing gear, but to take your scope or binoculars out under a clear sky doesn’t cost a thing. With some unscheduled time off work recently, after my bills were paid and gas tank filled, I had no disposable income left to spend on free time. The sky is still free, though, and Jupiter, Venus, Luna, and Mars were all out for my enjoyment. I went to Valpo’s Central Park Plaza to try to share these views last Wednesday.







After a mid-March that felt like late June, this night was rather chilly. This left the downtown area nearly deserted, and I had the celestial delights mostly to myself. I spent a lot of time observing Luna, going over both the familiar, and seeking out sights new to me.




I have my smaller Moon map clipped to the side of my 4.5" Newt.


I think this will be my best post yet on this thread. I have some nice images to present, with good features to observe. Usually I compress all my images before posting them, in case I later want to include them in my blog. I need the smaller format to keep things nice and clean on Blogger. Today’s images though will be exclusive to Chicago Astronomer.

Let’s start with the full disk, or at least the part that is illuminated in sunshine. To the north, Aristoteles and Eudoxus were just on the day side of the terminator. At the southern shore of the Sea of Serenity, the Haemus Mountains were coming into view, about half of the range in sunlight, while the rest remained in darkness. Below the lunar equator, the craters Theophilus and Cyrillus were farther from the terminator, but still close enough to cast good shadows to observe fine detail. Working even farther south, the battered highlands are a challenge. I’m not very familiar down there, but hope to change that.







Let’s take a look at the area around Mare Serenitatis. The Haemus Mountains to the south of the Sea of Serenity are almost certainly from the impact that created the basin. Not as certain are the mountains to the north, between Eudoxus and Posidonius. They were probably created by the same impact, but have been washed away, and not as well defined. It almost looks more like a debris field than mountain range.







North of Mare Serenitatis lies the small crater Burg. East of Burg we find the Lacus Mortis, the Lake of Death. Lacus Mortis is bordered in the east by a strange, almost squarish looking formation. Surely it is the remnants of an impact feature, but is one of the stranger looking ones I’ve come across. South of Burg are the ghost craters Plana and Mason. After being washed away by the Sea of Serenity, most of what survives of these two is the wall that separates them.





On the northwest shore of Mare Serenitatis is the large walled plain Posidonius. Inside this feature is not only the crater Posidonius A, but along the western rim appears to be a steppe. I’ve seen many terraced rims on craters, but this one stands out.





Running east-west between Promontorium Archerusia and Mons Argaeus, the regolith is noticeably darker than in surrounding areas. I’m not sure why this is, but it seems to be among te darkest areas on this side of the Moon.






See the darker regolith between Promontorium Archerusia and Mons Argaeus? And how it's lighter around crater Dawes?


Finally in this region, Aristoteles and Eudoxus stand out. High magnification showed the terraces on their eastern rims. Also, a jagged shadow in Aristoteles showed the height differences in the mountains on it’s western rim. Although the bowl of Aristoteles appears very circular, the outside rim on it’s western side appears to come to an almost right angle. Very strange.









North of Aristoteles, I made a serendipitous “discovery.” Perusing the Virtual Moon Atlas, I came across the wrecked triplet craters of Meton, Meton C, and Meton D. I then found them in one of my photographs. The inner walls have been washed away, leaving behind what would look like a cloverleaf formation if it were in mid-latitudes. It’s still interesting to see how their outer walls come together, and a bit odd that they weren’t washed away or collapsed when the inner walls came down.







On a crescent Moon of about 5 days, I can’t resist turning my telescope to the Theophilus/Cyrillus combination. Throw in Catharina to thesouth of Cyrillus, and you have quite a study of differently aged craters. Catharina seems to be the oldest of the three. It’s rim seems well worn compared to the sharp rim of Theophilus. Even the outline of Catharina P, inside and therefore younger than it’s host crater, seems well worn.









Cyrillus appears to be somewhat younger than Catharina, though it’s eastern wall looks more damaged and decayed than the western wall. Perhaps this is due to the impact from Cyrillus A, on it’s inner southeastern wall. Maybe debris from that impact, or the craters Ibn Rushd or Tacitus D, which lie just outside Cyrillus, have softened the features of the eastern wall? Perhaps it’s just a trick of lighting, but the eastern rim of Cyrillus looks higher than the west. The south rim is heavily damaged, mostly from the ghost crater Cyrillus F.

No doubt Theophilus obliterated the northwest rim of Cyrillus, and not so long ago by standards of lunar impacts. Theophilus shows some signs of age, though, again more along it’s eastern rim than western rim. Each of these two craters has a triple mountain peak at it’s center.

East of Catharina, and running roughly south-southwest to crater Piccolomini is an interesting ridge. It might be the remnants of a giant basin, much like many of the lunar seas. It may even be part of the basin partially filled by Mare Nectaris. I’m undecided whether the terrain to the south and east of this ridge is higher than north and west. There are some shadows being cast onto the region which I think might be a higher elevation, but these seem to be thrown by unusually high peaks along the ridge. My best interpretation is that this ridge truly marks the perimeter of an ancient basin, and that the outer region is indeed more elevated than the interior.







We think of the south lunar highlands as being extremely beaten and battered. It does show a much more ancient surface than the north, with it’s many lunar seas. However, between many craters, large and small, there are very smooth areas. Of course, there are many craters within and upon craters down here, too.





One last thing caught my eye during this observation. Much of the western part of the Moon was already awash in daylight, obscuring much of the detail to be seen there. However, just east of Mare Crisium, the small crater Proclus stood out. It’s inner northeast rim was reflecting far more sunlight than anything else in the area, appearing very bright. I’m not sure why this might be, but it will be interesting to observe Proclus when it’s near the terminator to see if any anomalies show up.





Here are some pics that I liked too much not to post.














Just missed an aircraft flying in front of the Moon!


Until next time, keep looking up, and don’t forget your Moon filter!

I dig Paulie's notations....good stuff.

I think we should conduct a "All Lunar All the time" session for the crew...and just explore the Lunar surface for a session. I remember one time C.A. Bill and I threw insane magnifications through his 10" Water Heater dob.

Fun times.

I'm tellling ya Paulie, you've inspired me - check it out; I took more tonight!

eyesonthesky.com/Blog/tabid/80/EntryId/20/Astrophotos-Venus-Pleiades-Moon.aspx

For anybody who missed the September 2012 issue of Astronomy, there was an article on observing the full Moon. I bought it and read it immediately after the August 1 full Moon session at Adler. With a blue Moon last night, I found myself recalling some of the tips from the article. Michael Bakich suggested looking for albedo (reflectivity) differences. While I wasn't exactly looking for albedo differences, I found one, and a weird one at that.

The huge crater Schickard has been on display the last few nights. Since it comes into view just as the Moon is nearing full, I think it's an under-observed and under-appreciated feature.

In the early morning of August 29, Schickard was just barely on the day side of the terminator. With the low lighting angle, it's impossible to tell what might be dark albedo material, and what might be shadow. The next morning, however, the Sun was illuminating Schickard from a higher angle. While investigating the nearby crater Bailly, I noticed that the eastern and western floor of Schickard was quite a bit darker than the material in the center of the floor. I didn't have much time to examine the Schickard floor in detail at that time. Early this morning, though, I took some shots of the crater through a 13 neutral density filter, #12 yellow, #80A blue, and #25 red filters. I haven't seen those pictures yet, but here's one from yesterday.





At first I thought the floor on the right side was darker, but now I'm not so sure. What's clear, though, is that there is a sharp division between light and dark on that side, whereas on the left it gradually darkens. I'm curious to see what the different colored filters reveal, but I don't have time for them now. Soon, though...


BTW, I mentioned a blue Moon this week. It has nothing to do with the color of the Moon. The Moon appears blue in this picture because I used a blue filter on the eyepiece.

Everyone's favorite rock star astronomer, WD Tyson, said that the moon has the reflectivity of tire rubber. Thank god, because I suspect we'd all be blinded if it had same as Venus.

Nice photo Paulie. It captures that Gassendi region nicely. I've been actively including lunar features every four weeks or so for Eyes on the Sky, since the Moon tends to wipe out most deep sky observing for about a week every month. I'm rather fond of the "cell phone camera over the eyepiece" afocal photography. It's amazing what that technique can pick up for detail.

I'm attaching my closer view of Gassendi / Mare Humorum. It's not very good, but I was only using a $20 70mm refractor and my cell phone, and it was on a pipe mount too, so not tracking.

Paulie...

To get pics off the phone.

I did the cable thing of moving data off my phone to the computer at first, but now I use an app called "Airdroid" to wirelessly handle data back and forth from my Android smartphone.

And it's free.