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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Paulie,

Those lunar shots are good....and will get better.

Smartphone cameras are coming of age and are pretty good in capturing detail. There are cell phone astro groups popping up.

I'm sure the phone has a timer, if so...use it.

I use a strip of Duct tape to hold my pocket camera to the eyepiece. Holds firm and let's go nicely....keeping your fingers on the trigger and less shake.

I like the tour of some of your favorite lunar areas.

[Paulie pchris00]

I have more to get to.

I point out the obvious for the beginners, and because we also explore them often. But what I really love is to find something I've never seen, and point it out for the serious lunar observers. Something a little offbeat for when the lunar surface is starting to feel too familiar, you know?

[patrickm]

Very cool, Paulie. You have a keen eye and I always love reading your observation narratives and the photos help immensely.

Let's hit Conway soon, please.

[Paulie pchris00]

Joe, I've installed the Airdroid app, but haven't used it yet. Hopefully it will speed up transfer when I have a large number of images to work with.

Patrick, thank you. I have posted these observations mostly to make myself a better lunar observer. I try to find some interesting sights while at the eyepiece, and try to interpret how the objects I see might have formed. Sometimes while going over the images, I find something I missed at the eyepiece, which I can then investigate through my own images and the Virtual Moon Atlas program, which I use extensively when interpreting my observations. If these postings help others become better lunar observers, even better, but I do it for myself more than anything.

So much of lunar observing comes down to the luck of timing. Is the sky clear? Is it the right phase? If so, is the lighting angle just right? Some of the more obscure features I've noted here might be a matter of luck whether I or anybody reading this thread catches at just the right time. But just by having these observations archived here can keep them in mind the next time I'm out with a telescope while the Moon is up.

And be sure to check out this week's Eyes on the Sky video. Dave has the strange crater Schiller featured, which is a very interesting sight, and I will be featuring here very soon.





www.eyesonthesky.com/Portals/0/chartsweeklyvids/March%2025-31%202013%20lunar%20chart.pdf

I'll move this video when I get last Saturday's observation posted, but I can't believe I have not posted about Schiller on this thread yet.

[magic612]

I second Patrick's comment. Thanks for posting my video too - I'm just trying to keep things interesting for those who watch.

[Paulie pchris00]

Last Friday I continued my lunar observations outside Valparaiso University's campus observatory before their public open house. I left the downtown area around sunset even though the open house didn't start until 8:30 PM. Some clouds were appearing to the west before sunset, although the forecast was mostly favorable.






I arrived at the observatory over an hour early to get some pictures outside the dome in the early twilight. I saw a student enter the dome, and shortly later, the roof opened, and started rotating. As I walked behind the dome, I saw a big rabbit in the grass eating. It didn't seem to mind me being there, but was startled when the dome started rotating again, rather noisily. When the dome stopped moving, the rabbit continued eating.










Rabbit behind the dome...




...but then the dome started rotating, and the rabbit seemed edgy and alert...




...then started eating again when the dome stopped.






A few clouds still to the west, but nothing serious yet.


I walked to the library building to charge my phone for a little bit, and check messages. On the way, I passed the chapel, which is a beautiful building, and can be seen all over the southeast side of town. Going back to the observatory, I saw white light coming out of the open dome. I know it's necessary sometimes, but I found it funny.




The trees planted just south of the dome help protect the observatory (left) from the lights of the busy U.S. 30 corridor, just a few hundred feet away.








V.U. Chapel.




The night before I got a headache from being out in the cold, so I sent my friend a picture to prove to her I was wearing my earmuffs this time.




White light inside the observatory dome.


I still had time to kill before the observatory opened to the public, so I spent it observing the Moon and trying to get images. Dr. Todd Hillwig arrived around 8:00, recognized me, and came over for a quick chat before going in to check on the students. I finished my observations, put away my telescope, and went inside at 8:30. Thin clouds and haze moving in limited deep sky observing to a brief view of the Orion Nebula, the nearest star forming region to Earth. Luckily bright Jupiter and Luna were up. They are the popular targets for the public anyway. It takes a real nerd to appreciate the fainter stuff.

I hung around and listened, and tried to stay out of the way and let the visitors have all the telescope time. When I saw nobody waiting to see the Moon, I took a quick peek. I had no idea what kind of magnification they were using (and neither did Dr. Hillwig), but it was a lot, at least 300x. Pushing that much power limits the field of view, and I don't think is good for the public. I like to start with the highest magnification that fits the entire lunar disk in the field of view, and then start zooming in. That's just my thought, and changing eyepieces holds up the line, so I understand why they used the same eyepiece all night.

They did move the telescope slightly to show different regions of the Moon, which was a good idea. While Dr. Hillwig was talking about the formation of crater Copernicus, which was being shown, I found a picture of it on my phone that I took earlier in the night. I let those waiting around me see what it looked like, so they would know what to look for when their turn at the telescope came.

We didn't get to see much, but at least the weather was somewhat clear and although cold, it was warm enough to open the dome to the public. Even though I didn't personally do much observing, I always enjoy being around people who are very knowledgeable about astronomy, and those who want to learn.

Now, let's have a look at what I saw Friday night. A lot of what I discuss in this post I will come back to in my next post.


Near the terminator was the far northern crater John Herschel, Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows), the strange crater Schiller in the south, and my favorite lunar crater, Gassendi.







Crater Schiller, a highly elongated crater, was just barely visible at the terminator. For now, just notice its location and rough shape. We'll explore it further in the my next post. Coming north along the terminator we find the exceptional crater Gassendi.







Again, I'll explore Gassendi further in my next post, but let's look at it now. Situated on the northern "shore" of Mare Humorum, the southern rim of Gassendi is very deteriorated, probably obliterated during the formation of Mare Humorum. On the north rim of Gassendi is Gassendi A, giving the entire crater system a diamond ring look. Gassendi A has pushed a considerable amount of material into the basin of Gassendi proper. The rim of Gassendi that is on the terminator looks wider in the middle, though it's still unclear to me why.

At the southern end of Mare Humorum is the smaller crater Doppelmayer. Like Gassendi, its northern rim has been washed away by the mare.







Moving north, let's quickly note the ray system of Copernicus as it is illuminated by more direct sunlight.





Coming north, the Bay of Rainbows is now fully illuminated. Even further north, above Mare Frigoris, there is a mix of comparatively young craters among some very ancient craters. The roughly one billion year old crater Anaxagoras lies atop the approximately four billion year old crater Goldschmidt. For being such an old crater, Goldschmidt has a remarkably smooth looking floor. Heading toward the terminator from Goldschmidt/Anaxagoras we find the crater Philolaus, another about one billion years old. Philolaus has formed on top of a very old looking crater Philolaus C, leaving really only the southern rim of C. What remains of Philolaus C looks highly deteriorated, leading me to think it formed from an impact three or four billion years ago. Next to Philolaus is another roughly four billion year old crater, Anaximenes. Coming south from Anaximenes is the nearly 100 mile wide crater John Herschel. J. Herschel is yet another crater dating back about four billion years. We'll see J. Herschel again in my next post, but what can we see there now? Just barely visible near the middle of the J. Herschel is the small crater J. Herschel C. Along the southern rim of J. Herschel are the Craters Horrebow and Horrebow A. The older and more northern Horrebow A seems to have thrown considerable debris into the south of J. Herschel. The younger Horrebow, nearly on top of Horrebow A, likely did the same, but slightly more recently. While J. Herschel lacks a central peak, this debris from the Horrebow craters, and younger interior craters such as J. Herschel C seem to be casting shadows on the visual eastern floor of J. Herschel.







This far northern excursion is an example of what I sometimes find after an observation when comparing my images to the Virtual Moon Atlas software. Other than the John Herschel region, not much of the northern region caught my eye Friday night night. So sometimes putting away the telescope doesn't necessarily mean the observing session has come to an end.

I'll try to post Saturday's observations as soon as I can, but I haven't started any work other than saving the images to a disk.


And, just because I can, the arrangement of the Galilean Moons Friday night.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

This was nice seeing the Valpo Observatory...but...no pics of the inside?

Fun post...

[patrickm]

"On the north rim of Gassendi is Gassendi A, giving the entire crater system a diamond ring look."

I prefer pinhead snowman, but whatever.

Great write up & follow up analysis. Bummed with Joe no pics of inside.

We have a new, clear winner in the "Paulie's calling" smartphone pic contest. :-p

[Paulie pchris00]

Mar 26, 2013 7:06:03 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

This was nice seeing the Valpo Observatory...but...no pics of the inside?

Fun post...

What?!? It was dark inside the dome when I was inside. Proper observing etiquette says I can't blind everybody with my flash just because I want a picture of the telescope inside the dome.

However, this picture of the telescope was posted on the VU physics website several years ago. I don't know who to credit for the picture, and the webpage I found it on no longer exists.




The 16" Ritchey-Chretien telescope in the VU observatory.

Btw, I have never seen that Celestron riding piggyback on the 16".

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Interesting that they needed to add that sliding weight bar to off-set the SCT riding on top.

You say it's gone?

[Paulie pchris00]

The Celestron seen piggybacking here is now used as a stand alone telescope outside the dome on busy nights. I want to say it's a C8.

Those counter weights just look heavy, don't they? You think they were balancing the SCT? I've never seen the telescope in full light before. My thought was that those counter weights were balancing the primary mirror, but you might be right. The next chance I have to be in the dome I'll have to look and see if the bar and counter weights are still attached.

[Paulie pchris00]

Well, on March 21, 22, and 23, I had three straight nights of good lunar observing, and have already posted about the first two. The following weekend I was finally starting to work on this post, when I had a strong urge to email the link for this thread to my friend Jeff Johnson, Educational Outreach Director of Calumet Astronomical Society. I had recently learned that Jeff was an avid lunar observer, like me. I decided to wait to send him the link to this thread until I had this current post finished. The following afternoon, Saturday, March 30, I received a message from CAS President Chris Brownewell that Jeff had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I was shaken by the news, and quit working on this post again until now. I’d like to dedicate this post to my friend Jeff Johnson. His tireless work on behalf of Calumet Astronomical Society, including coordinating our annual Youth Astronomy Camp, will be dearly missed.




Jeff Johnson, Hillary Woloshansky, and myself at Valpo’s Central Park Plaza for International Observe the Moon Night, October 8, 2011.




Jeff is too busy aligning his telescope on the Sun to pose for a picture before the Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012.


By the evening of March 23, the waxing gibbous Moon was filling out nicely, and very bright. A neutral density “Moon” filter was necessary for comfortable visual observing, and helped cut down the glare in photographs. The reduced glare at higher powers, however, allowed me to use an 80A blue filter, which helps cut glare without turning the lunar too dark.






The visible lunar disk, and some points of interest to explore in this post.


The very large crater Schickard was straddling the terminator in the south. As the hours passed, more of the rim became illuminated.











As noted in an earlier post, and highlighted in Dave Fuller’s “Eyes on the Sky” video, the crater Schiller is highly elongated. I’m not sure I agree with the hypothesis that Schiller was created by a low angle impact. In the southern highlands, there are plenty of examples of craters upon older craters. Since the northern part of Schiller seems narrower, and therefore smaller, than the southern rim of the crater, I like to think Schiller was created from two separate impacts, and somehow their rims between them were obliterated. Since Schiller has a rather smooth floor, presumably from lava flooding from below, similar to the maria, I think this is an equally valid hypothesis on the formation of Schiller’s oblong shape that we see today.






Since seeing conditions were rather steady, I was able to push magnification at times to 320x. In the northern section of Schiller, there is some sort of protrusion on the crater floor. It may be the remnants of a central peak, but it seems off center. Also, north of Schiller, the small triple crater of Hainzel, Hainzel A, and Hainzel C provides evidence that impactors were long ago slamming on top of previous cratering, which I believe supports my hypothesis that Schiller was formed by two impacts.





Since we are sort of in the area, let’s revisit my favorite crater, Gassendi. The night before, the terminator had just barely pushed past Gassendi. Now, with the terminator roughly 150 miles past it, we can see how Gassendi relates to its surroundings. At noted previously, Gassendi sits on the northern edge of the nearly circular Mare Humorum. Between Gassendi and crater Mersenius is a small mountain range of three or four large peaks. It’s a safe guess that these mountains are the remains of the Humorum basin. Also, and this is purely speculation on my part, it seems that the asteroid that formed Gassendi might have came from the south. Being surrounded on two sides by maria, it’s impossible to compare the original state of the ejecta from Gassendi, but what is left to the north seems to imply a large amount of ejecta thrown in that direction. An impact from the south might also explain why the southern rim of Gassendi is lower, and was partially washed out by the mare flood.







Heading north, let’s briefly look at crater Keplar, similar to its neighbor Copernicus, but three times smaller. While not a truly young crater, over one billion years old, lying in the dark Ocean of Storms, Keplar’s light ejecta blanket and ray system are still noticeable after all the space weather they’ve been subjected to. Placed elsewhere on the Moon, perhaps in the southern highlands, the ray systems of Keplar and Copernicus would not likely stand out. We’re lucky, then, that they are placed in spots where we can enjoy and study their rays better.





Coming further north, we find an odd cluster of features marring Oceanus Procellarum. This cluster is dominated by the small crater Aristarchus. Despite being only about 25 miles in diameter, Aristarchus is the brightest of all lunar craters (at least on the near side). Next to Aristarchus is the slightly smaller crater Herodotus. Just north of Herodotus, Vallis Schroter winds through the region. This area might have been volcanically active at one time. In fact, with many observers reporting transient lunar phenomena (temporary lights or colors) around Aristarchus, some think there may still be some sort of outgassing in the Aristarchus region.







Zooming in with a Barlow lens, we get a better look at Vallis Schroter.









Continuing our journey north, we come to some features explored in the previous post. Now we’ll see them differently, as the Sun has risen in the lunar sky. The small double crater of Horrebow and Horrebow A, on the southern rim of John Herschel, is now easy to see. It is now also easier to see the crater Philolaus on the badly wrecked Philolaus C. While the floor of crater Anaximenes was in shadow the night before, we now see that it has a rather smooth floor for a crater of about four billion years old, something we noticed the night before with the nearby crater Goldschmidt. And above the crater J. Herschel, we again find a roughly four billion year old crater with a smooth looking floor, the large double crater Anaximander. Anaximander was clearly formed by two impacting bodies. It’s hard to tell, but judging by the shadows, the northern rim of Anaximander looks higher than the rim of the southern portion. We also get a better look now at the floor of J. Herschel, and see clear albedo differences in the regolith. Situated on the terminator, the rim of the large crater Babbage is casting long shadows, and inside, the rim of Babbage C is fully illuminated. Also notice that the large, but heavily eroded by Mare Frigoris, crater South has pushed the rim of Babbage inward, so that it nearly meets Babbage C.









After spending several hours in the cold observing our Moon, it was time to end this session. Saturn was rising to a respectable observing altitude, so I turned to it before the clouds came in to end my night. I hope to have more posted soon, both recent observations, and maybe some that should have been posted long ago.

[Paulie pchris00]

I didn't get any telescope time Saturday night, but I was outside periodically. Looking up, I noticed the Moon well below Regulus. Knowing that Regulus is very near the ecliptic, I deduced that the northern lunar hemisphere would be better than average for viewing. Checking Curt's path of the Moon chart, I see that the Moon is now heading north to the ascending node of its orbit, but still rather far below the ecliptic. This gave me a chance tonight to see the far north better than I usually see it. It will take me awhile to edit the pictures, but expect a tour soon. And much of what we saw in that region in the last couple of posts will be seen again under different lighting.

Here is a tease.

Attachments:

[Paulie pchris00]

Who says there's nothing to observe on the Moon when it's nearly full? Sure wasn't me.

I just noticed Monday, though this is from tonight (August 21). Right next to the bright crater Proclus is Palus Somni, jutting right up to the ejecta rays from Proclus. This region is darker than the highlands surrounding Mare Crisium, but lighter than Mare Tranquillitatis. Very interesting, and seems to me to possibly be ejecta from the Proclus impact.






Also, this is irrefutable evidence that the Moon, is, in fact, made of cheese.

Attachments:

[Paulie pchris00]

I want to do an exploration of the southern lunar highlands soon, but for now, this is just a quick look at one of the most prominent southern features, Clavius.

Clavius is enormous, actually considered a walled plain rather than a crater. A couple of decent sized craters lie on the rim of Clavius, with smaller craters seen dotting the floor inside Clavius. This weekend, however, I noticed something along the outer northern rim. Debris seems to have slid down the northern rim in a four places, and to me looks like four fingers jutting out of the top of the crater. It was much more evident visually through the eyepiece than in these images (the seeing was awful Friday, and Saturday, though better, still had quite a bit of turbulence).




Friday, September 13, 2013. The low illumination angle revealed to me some debris trails down the northern rim of Clavius.




Saturday, September 14, 2013





That's all for now, but I really want to try to do a southern highlands tour soon.

[magic612]

Paulie, I thought you might appreciate this photo I got tonight of Petavius, Langrenus, and some surrounding area. The Moon was ridiculously clear tonight, and I was looking for Mira with binoculars, but peered up at the Moon. I saw four craters all along the limb, in various states of shadow.

So I dragged out my 6" f/5 reflector, and started snapping away. Here's one of the best shots I got. I wish I could get photos that are as clear as what I see, but this one was pretty close. The detail on the peak inside Petavius was incredible. I could see lines on the peak, and terraces on the crater's wall. Truly stunning, to be sure.

[Paulie pchris00]

Wow, it's been awhile again since I've posted on this thread. I'm going to repost Dave's image, from late night of September 21, and compare the terminator to an image I took a few hours later, after 3 AM, September 22.







I don't often get a chance to just watch the terminator drift along, so it's very cool to compare images of roughly the same region of the Moon, both with 6" reflectors, and at similar magnifications (167x in Dave's image; 160x in my image.

[mojocvh]

Just love those "raw" eyepiece pictures Paulie so much atmospheric than those "perfect" images that some like to "produce"

keep at it.

all the best

AndyB.

[Paulie pchris00]

Nov 10, 2013 14:54:30 GMT -6 mojocvh said:

Just love those "raw" eyepiece pictures Paulie so much atmospheric than those "perfect" images that some like to "produce"

keep at it.

all the best

AndyB.

Thank you. Honestly, it's about the best I can do, and really not too shabby for a 6" Dob and a cell phone.


So, I have lapsed again in posting on this thread, but the lunar observing has continued. I have so much data I'd love to post here, but so little time to go through the data, edit, and write. However, I have some time at the moment to post about an observation from last week, Thursday, December 12. I was out for a little bit, and stopped at the park, all lit up for the holiday season, for this lunar and Jovian session.







According to the Virtual Moon Atlas, libration in latitude that night was -01', so for north/south libration, the Moon was about as straight on as you'll see it. The east/west libration, however, was 5 degrees, 55'. This allowed at look at two maria along the visual western limb, Mare Marginis, and Mare Smythii. I've seen these two maria often, but it's rare that I've been able to see past either one.






Libration in longitude allowed good observation of Maria Marginis and Smythia. To see a comparison of libration in longitude from October 2011 and March 2012, see this thread: astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Lunar&action=display&thread=3718


I haven't done much exploring of the southern highlands on this thread, and this was not a very good night for seeing, and the cold limited this to a rather quick session, but nothing caught my eye as exceptional. The terminator in the far south was fairly interesting, even though the craters near it, with only their rims in sunlight, were not well defined.











Below the large crater Clavius, the 67 mile wide Casatus lies partially over the slightly larger and older Klaproth. Both craters are very old, around four billion years or so, and would be an interesting sight closer to the middle of the Moon.

Further south along the terminator is the crater Newton. In my images, Newton looks to be one crater, though I suspect that what looks to be its southern rim is actually the southern rim of Newton A.

To the visual east of Clavius are two more large, ancient craters, Blancanus and Scheiner. Again, both are about four billion years old, and mostly appear interesting because of their proximity to the terminator.


Back to the north, I like how the terminator was just beyond the Jura Mountains, the perimeter of Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows.





And lastly, some pictures with no commentary to add to them.













I apologize for not going as in depth as I have in other posts on this thread, but it's really hard to identify some of the average craters in the highlands, especially in the far south where foreshortening becomes a problem. And, let's face it. The southern highlands are filled with a lot of very old, very average craters.

[Paulie pchris00]

Again, it has been such a long time since I've added to this thread.

Sunrise on Crater Ptolemaeus, July 4, 2014

I can't seem to resist staring at Luna whenever she is up, and if I have the chance to get my telescope out, I can explore the lunar surface for hours. On the evening of July 4, I skipped attending Independence Day fireworks shows, and went down to Conway Observatory, to see the close apparent conjunction of asteroids 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta, and other observations. Of course, the not quite first quarter Moon sent plenty of photons to my telescope's primary mirror.

Early in the evening, I noticed that the "Snowman" of Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel, were right along the terminator.







As Luna continued through her orbit, I compared views through two 5" refractors that Bill was testing, and he had the power cranked. I noticed a streak of daylight starting to fall across Ptolemaeus, then went back to my 6" Dobsonian to photograph it.





After that, I kept checking periodically to see how the light and shadows were falling on the crater floor of Ptolemaeus.









Finally, just before 11:00 PM, only a couple long shadows from the eastern rim of Ptolemaeus were falling across the crater floor.

By that time, I had found the space rocks in conjunction in Virgo, and was observing them, looking for proper motion, and helping Javier find them, so that he could image the asteroid pair. My lunar observing was pretty much over for the night, and Luna was already low, seen through turbulent atmosphere, where observing is worst, and imaging is nearly useless.

[Centaur]

Jul 22, 2014 14:56:48 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

...not quite first quarter Moon...

Thanks, Paulie, for sharing your fine photos and commentary of the "not quite HALF MOON" near the end of the first quarter of its current lunation.

[Paulie pchris00]

Thanks, Eric. When I started this thread almost three years ago, I liked lunar observing, but I didn't know the Moon very well. I started posting some of my observations here, to help myself learn, and maybe point out some things that others hadn't noticed, or had forgotten.

The Ptolemaeus sunrise wasn't really a difficult observation, but I like to tell people my favorite part of astronomy is watching our solar system in motion, in real time (and by real time, I mean over the course of an hour or two). I like to watch the Moon in orbit, which can be observed by watching the terminator creep along, occultations, or watching it in relation to the background stars. Jupiter is my second favorite object to observe, in part because the motion of the Galilean Moons and Jupiter's fast rotation can be observed fairly quickly to a sharp eye. It's just my personal preference, but I like to see our solar system in motion.

[Paulie pchris00]

How many times have we heard or read that the half Moon is the best time for lunar observing? I know the terminator is most striking at that time, but I really hate that advice. When asked when to best observe the Moon, I answer that it depends what you want to see. Only observing Luna near the half phase limits what can be observed, and I like to explore the entire disk, and when libration allows, sneak peeks of the far side.

On the night of December 6-7, the Moon was 99.8% illuminated when I started observing, but was past full, so the celestial western limb was starting to show shadows as the Moon began to wane. With the Moon so recently past full, and a libration of over six degrees in latitude, I saw features along that limb I had never seen before, or at least had never seen well.



























I observed over the course of many hours, and watched as features near the terminator disappeared into lunar night. While atmospheric transparency was never great that night, toward the end of the observation it was terrible, and water vapor in the air started turning the images very soft.



















The next time you think, I'm not going to observe tonight because the Moon is full, remember that you might just see part of the lunar surface you've never seen before.

[Centaur]

Thank you, Paulie for sharing your marvelous photos and descriptions of the Moon when just past full, and for continuing your fine lunar observing thread. As you note, lunar features are best highlighted during a Half Moon or nearby although an attentive observer can find otherwise overlooked features near the lunar limb only near the time of Full Moon.

I hope you have encouraged some amateur astronomers to stop complaining about a Full Moon interfering with deep sky observations, and instead have motivated them to begin studying the features near the lunar limb which can change from month to month due to the libration effect that you mention.

Of course during phases outside the Full Moon, not only does the surface relief appear sharper, but also the Moon interferes less with deep sky observing. It may surprise many folks to learn that a Full Moon is about twelve times brighter than a Half Moon, mainly due the differences in the effects of shadowing. 

[Paulie pchris00]

Thank you for your kind words, Curt. As I stated earlier in the thread, my main purpose in posting these observations is to become a better lunar observer myself, but I also share them to help others in their lunar observing. There is no target that offers more visually in most amateur sized telescopes than our Moon. I realize that it may not be the most intrinsically interesting target in the sky, but it is much more difficult to tease out details at the eyepiece of say Jovian weather or galactic structure. Our Moon offers observers of all skill and experience levels something to see whenever it is above the horizon.

In my most recent post, libration and lunation (phase) combined to give me a look at a region that is often not observed well. It's circumstances such as those that inspire me to turn my telescope to Luna whenever I can. The quality of those images is not as good as some of my others because of the poor seeing conditions and sky transparency, but because I may not have a chance again soon to observe the features along that limb, I felt compelled to take the images, anmd share them here. I'm waiting for the day when libration and lunation allow me a similar look at the Mare Orientale region on the opposite lunar limb.

[Paulie pchris00]

Dec 28, 2014 9:19:08 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

I'm waiting for the day when libration and lunation allow me a similar look at the Mare Orientale region on the opposite lunar limb.

Last week I finally got a peek at the edge of Mare Orientale. I hope to have that posted soon, although it was a very brief observation. I got a little bit of a peek last April, if I remember correctly, that I may include as well.

Here's a tease.

[Paulie pchris00]

After waiting so long for a good phase and libration to see Mare Orientale, my chance came while I was at work. This observation was during my 15 minute break, and I had to get out to my car, get out my telescope and set up, and try to get images as fast as I can. While my phone doesn't have much of a problem taking lunar pictures when the Moon is near full, it likes to overexpose the limb during the crescent phase. I had to combine my neutral density filter with my #80A blue filter, and turn down the exposure setting on my camera, just to try to compensate. It was cold, and the Moon was still low in the sky, with terrible seeing conditions. Saturn, though, was visible below the Moon, if you drew a line connecting the horns of the crescent, and followed it straight down.

In brief visual observing, I could see Lacus Veris, Lake of Spring, and beyond it, Mare Orientale on the limb. Being rushed, though, I didn't get any images worthy of posting if this weren't such a challenge just to get the necessary phase and libration. I'll let the photos tell the rest.

[Paulie pchris00]

I've been looking through some of my lunar images from the last year. I always take many images in rather quick succession, so that through percentages, I'm more likely to get one with good "seeing." As I'm looking through these images, I can watch as the seeing conditions changed over several seconds. I thought taking a few frames and turning them into a GIF would recreate the experience of peering through the eyepiece.

The four frames I've used for this GIF were taken between 02:22:38 and 02:22:45 CDST, May 18, 2014, using the 16" LX200 at Conway Observatory and a Samsung Android cell phone. I've corrected the mirror-reversed original images.

[Centaur]

Feb 1, 2015 4:11:02 GMT -6 Paulie pchris00 said:

I've been looking through some of my lunar images from the last year. I always take many images in rather quick succession, so that through percentages, I'm more likely to get one with good "seeing." As I'm looking through these images, I can watch as the seeing conditions changed over several seconds. I thought taking a few frames and turning them into a GIF would recreate the experience of peering through the eyepiece.

Wow Paulie! You've proved that the Moon is alive. Thanks for sharing. 

[Paulie pchris00]

Yesterday morning we finished early at work, and were sent home early, at 3:00 AM. At first, I wasn't happy about it, but before I left work I remembered that it was a great morning to see Mare Orientale again, and the sky was clear. I couldn't wait to get home and observe.

Although I'd seen Mare Orientale on the morning of January 16 (posted on page 2 of this thread), that was a very brief observation in the parking lot at work, with bad seeing conditions. Yesterday the libration was even better for observing the Orientale region, and while seeing still wasn't very good, I had the time to wait, and it did improve a little as the morning progressed. Unfortunately, it was very cold, 1° F (-1° F wind chill) in Valparaiso, so I took several warm up breaks.







Visually, I was very pleased with the view, although I didn't manage to improve much upon my images from last month.







I was about to end the observation, but realized that I hadn't really observed much outside the Orientale region, so I scanned the lunar surface to see if anything interesting stood out. I then realized that there was something conspicuously absent. In the far south, near the terminator, I noticed a crater, later determined to be Casatus, that was surrounded by darkness, even on the day side of the terminator. I can't find much information about Casatus and surrounding craters other than size, but based on this observation, I have to think the region is in a basin deeper than the surrounding terrain.






Part of the eastern rim of crater Klaproth can be seen just above Casatus, but the northwest of Casatus is deep in shadow, even though it is on the day side of the terminator.


I love observing our Moon. No matter how well I think I know its surface, I always get surprised by something new, or seen in a new light, or in this case, a new lack of light.