20070327 - More lunar observations

Session name: 20070327.1930

Moon's age is 8 days 23 hours.

These past couple of sessions I didn't maintain the logbook. I got caught up with photographing Moon, taking snapshots of Saturn, and sharing sights with the Public that I didn't scratch a sketch or take notes of any significant value. Not really a good thing when there's detail to recall.

One small redeemer is that the camera timestamps the event. All these photos are taken with the Nikon Coolpix 995 mounted with an eyepiece adapter attached to the Takahashi FS102 refractor.

Charlie arrived with SAR, that's his Coulter CT-100. We each observed from our scopes and would occasionally switch to see the alternate view. This kind of observing is fun and useful. Charlie will often detect and point out features that are too subtle under higher magnification.

Here is the southern hemisphere on the moon, click on the image for a larger unmarked image.

One can see Mare Australe on Moon's southeastern limb, left in photo. More central, near the top along the terminator, sunrise lights most of the prominent crater Clavius, though the walls to the east still cast shadows to the west. This large crater hosts an arc of craterlets on the floor and craters Rutherford & Porter on its rim. In the scope finer craterlets and surface 'abrasion' can be observed. The undulations at the shadows' tips reveal the varying elevations.

On the eastern floor of Mare Nubium, the Straight Wall, known as Rupes Recti, is apparent between craters Thebit and Birt. If you have the scope on this area, throw some magnification at Thebit to see the crater on top of crater on top of crater.

Albategnius, the area we observed two nights prior, is well into its morning. On that recent observing session the trio Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel were still experiencing night time. All of these craters are situated to the east of Mare Nubium. They become increasingly difficult to recognize as the moon waxes to full.