Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Nov 12, 2009 8:52:30 GMT -6
Morning Lunar Imaging
12 November 2009
Still on my "Follow the Shadow" lunar series....I got up rather late - 6:00 am...and the skies were already brightening quickly. But still, it was clear, takes no time to set up the C5 and took a few quick images...
The contrast was very low, the air turbulent and as the city is waking up...traffic makes the ground shake, especially with delivery trucks rumbling by.
No, practical urban astronomy ceases when the sun comes up.
But there were pics to grab and I started along the terminator...
Hovering around the "Mare Humorum - (Sea of moisture)" region and about 275 miles across, we see an impressive large crater to the lower right...get many craters for the price of one... Crater Gassendi - (17 th century French Philosopher and astronomer - Pioneer of the observation with a refractor. First observer of the path of Mercury ahead of the Sun in 1631. Copernican in connection with Kepler and Galilée).
He gets at least 15, count 'em Fifteen craters named in the general vicinity after him!! It's "who" you know!! #confuse#
Aside from that, the main crater is 67 miles in diameter and the central mountain peak reaches up to 3630 feet. It was looked at at a possible landing spot for Apollo 17.
Looking straight across the Mare, we see three craters.
"Doppelmayer", (18 th century German Mathematician and astronomer ), with a central peak...
Open ended "Lee m" Crater , (19 th century English Astronomer )...
...and Crater "Vitello", (13 th century polish Philosopher mathematician and astronomer).
We revisit Kepler again, with the great ejecta rays in a different light and compared with yesterdays image below...
But it seems that as the area approaches sunset, the rays are losing their brilliancy.
Looking back at "Sinus Iridum", ( Sea of Rainbows), it's time for cold sleep till we see it again in a week or so.
Heading north, we come across a array of large "shallow" craters...
From left to right: "Herschel" (19 th century English Astronomer)...
"Anaximander and Anaximander b" ( Recommended a flat circular Earth. Map of the world known. Discovery of the
Polar Star and of the obliquity of the Ecliptic.)...
Then just reaching to the limb is "Desargues" (17 th century French Mathematician and engineer, and Unification of the theory of the conical.)...
The deeper sharper crater above is "Carpenter" (19 th century English Astronomer)...
...and below is central peaked "Pythagoras" (6 th century BC Greek Philosopher and mathematician and his famous theorem.)
Large piece of lunar real estate..!
And another peek at the elongated "Schiller" crater with yesterdays below...
And "Hainzel" Triplet crater now in deep shadow.
There was a cat hanging around for my session that I have seen about, and if I didn't already have cats, I would convince her to join my family...
With that, conditions were not getting better and I was ok with the images of this morning. Not great, but at least it was clear...and we get to follow the phase for another session...
We see that the Moon is hanging right above my neighbors chimney and approaching trees...session over.