20100515 - Crescent Moon & Venus over NYC

Session name: 20100515.1900
Location: TotL

Objects observed:
Satellites: ISS, 1 unknown satellite through Bootes
Solar System: Moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn, meteor passing Arcturus
Deep sky: M3, M13, M57, M65*, M66*, M81, M82 (* attempted, not observed)

At sunset looking west over NYC, Venus and the crescent Moon.

Session Details:
Optics: Teleport 10" reflector; magnifications used 32x, 75x, 98x, 181x
Observing party: Peter, Tom, George, 'D'
Visitors: 4 dozen++
Weather: Mostly clear, 1 ¼ day Moon in Taurus, occasional light breeze; high, thin cirrus clouds and faster moving sheets of altostratus; cool comfortable temperature
Seeing: I
Transparency: Good; no Milky Way
NELM: --

20100430 - Planets Continue To Please

Session name: 20100430.1900
Location: TotL
Objects observed
Satellites: International Space Station, Iridium 42 Flare, 2 unknown satellites
Solar system: Moon in Sco, Venus in Tau, Mars in Cnc, and Saturn in Vir
Constellations: Gem, Leo, Virgo, Lib, Sco, UMi, UMa, Boo, Com, CrB,
Deep sky: M3, M44, M65*, M66*, NGC 2903*, Melotte 111* ("*" indicates attempted not seen)

[public observing Saturn]

Summary
This session began with setting up the scope prior to sunset at the top of the lawn. Screams and cheers for the softball teams filled the air and a few kids played soccer in the midst of reclining people on blankets. Warm temps and clear skies brought people out in numbers.

Within minutes of opening the Teleport, it drew many questions from those nearby and stopped curious persons walking past. Ken strolled up while I setup and Tom C would arrive early, too, and each helped answer questions from the passersby. It wasn't that much longer that we had Venus in the scope and Tom prepared everyone for an 8:02PM passing of the International Space Station. Shortly after sunset in the twilight sky we all observed the ISS, about -2 magnitude, lumbering across a clear sky from southwest to northeast. It was visible for at least 30 - 40 seconds, maybe longer. With Venus setting into the trees to our west, the scope was turned to Saturn, high in our eastern sky. A line formed to see Saturn with two attendant moons trailing close by just off the rings. To finish off the Solar System tour, we pointed out Mars high above our heads. In the scope, many could easily see the reddish-orangy hue and that it was a disk.

Through the eyepiece, Mars appears much smaller than Venus and Saturn. To begin with, it is physically small and our distance from Mars increases as earth travels faster in its orbit around the Sun, its size shrinks and brightness dims in the coming months.

Transparency was only fair even though there was no visible cloud cover. The handle stars of the Little Dipper were very difficult and cores of brighter galaxies were lost on a background sky that didn't offer enough contrast. Open cluster M44 and globular cluster M3 were the only deep sky objects shared with the public.

Saturn captured the most scope time satisfying the many who stopped. In addition to the planets, we observed the brighter constellations without telescope or binoculars. Using the Big Dipper, we starhopped following the familiar jingle, "Arc to Arcturus and spike to Spica". We traced out constellations like Bootes, Leo, and the upper half of Gemini. We noted where invisible Cancer and faint Virgo occupy areas of the sky.

The traffic flow was busiest early in the session and I stopped counting after the first dozen or so people. A steady flow of people continued to stop by the crowd density was much thinner later into the night.

[image of Moon shot with point-n-shoot]

Concluding the session, with the telescope packed, we observed the rising Moon just east of Antares, Scorpio's alpha star. We enjoyed observing with naked eye and monopod-mounted 7x50 binoculars. The honey-colored Moon provided an opportunity to test our visual acuity with hard to see lunar features. W.H Pickering, an American astronomer in early twentieth century, designed a list of 12 lunar features for naked eye observers ordered by increasing difficulty. Though Charlie and I were not following this list, I'd say confidently we reached #9, Sinus Medii. I can't say I saw #11, a dark feature on the Appennine Bench but we could discern the curving line of the Appennine Mountain range.

Observing details
M3. A bright globular cluster in CVn, easily seen in 7x50 handheld bins as a fuzzy object in the base of a long, narrow isoceles triangle; at 75x, distinctly a globular cluster with a bright central nucleus and smooth brighness contour extending out from core, some granularity and mostly unresolved; at 181x, cluster resolves stars along the edge and hovering above the cluster. Used Arcturus for starhopping.

M44, Beehive Cluster, Praesepe. A bright, large, loose open cluster in Cnc., shaped like a Xmas tree or wedge with multiple groupings of nearly equally bright stars, a faint glow of unresolved stars filled in a small area in the NE end of cluster; used Mars for starhopping.

NGC 2903, M65, M66. Attempted but not observed, three galaxies in Leo that have been observed in the past from this location with this scope; found starfields relatively easy but couldn't say with confidence that the galaxies were detected; starhopped from epsilon Leo for NGC 2903, from Chort (theta Leo) for M65/66.

Saturn with four moons. Mostly viewed at 181x; Titan and Rhea on the trailing side, Tethys and Dione, may have glimpsed Enceladus near the ring, on leading side; shadow apparent as narrow black line adjacent to the upper side (field of view) of the ring; shallow ring inclination apparent; graduated darkening/shading from ring to pole on upper hemisphere,most pronounced on the pole; a subtle, broad stripe across the lower hemisphere but not edge to edge.

Mars. Observed at 181x; a small round disk, no phase discerned, fiery, reddish-orange color; could see a croissant-shaped dark patch on face of disk, extending from top right of center across the left and down.

Session Details
Optics: Teleport 10" reflector; magnifications used 32x, 75x, 98x, 181x; Fujinon 7x50
Observing party: Charlie, Ken, Tom, Peter
Visitors: 3 dozen++
Weather: Clear skies, no clouds,16 ½ day Moon in Sco, calm air to light breeze
Seeing: II - III (Antonaldi); atmospheric steadiness good with regular noticeable air turbulence at high magnification
Transparency: Fair; 3-4 stars of Little Dipper
Manhattan Skyline: Broad, diffused light cone spanning from Citigroup Bldg to Times Square; Citigroup Bldg and adjacent bldg hidden from our view, GE Bldg, Times Sqaure worst offenders
NELM: 4.2

Saturn and Gibbous Moon

Session name: 20090206.2035

Teleport ready for Urban sky

Location: Top of the Lawn, Central Park
Site Classification: Urban
Dark Sky Scale, Bortle: Class 8, City Sky
Seeing Scale, Antoniadi: II/III
Transparency: Poor
NELM:

Weather: High cirrus clouds over entire sky, Moon carries corona across the sky; cold temps, especially with light breeze.
Moon: 11d18h waxing gibbous, sunrise terminator.
Equipment: Teleport TP10, 10" reflector
Observing Party: Peter
Passersby: ~19
Objects observed:
- Solar System - Moon; Saturn & 3 moons
- Stellar - Beta Mon; Trapezium + E & F stars; iota Ori; sigma Ori
- Deep Sky - Orion's Sword: NGC1981, M42/43; M41; M79*
[* - attempted, not observed]

This session was cold. Long underwear, sweaters, heavy coat, hat, and gloves. When the breeze picked up the cold was biting. Awkward, sluggish movements hamper any springy, adroit dexterity. My goal was to get my first real look at Saturn this year.

The pedestrian traffic was low, yet those that stopped by were fascinated with views of Saturn and three moons. The waxing, gibbous Moon was suspended high in the southwest sky. Some of the familiar dog owners, like Mitch and Marble stopped by. When TIME'S UP! arrived for their midnight park ride, Mitch assisted by describing what and where we were observing. Marbel was occupied in chasing the ball tossed down the sidewalk. Other times, some couples passed, stopped, and chatted. Thin crowds but much company and conversation during the entire session.

Everyone marveled at Saturn and Titan under magnifications 98x and 181x. Those with keen eyes spotted Iapetus and Dione. The ring system is flat and thin, crossing the planet it appears as a very thin black line. In fact, I am not certain that I saw it entirely across the disk or if it was mostly pronounced in the center. Since Saturn hasn't reached opposition yet (08 March 2009), we should be able to see the shadow of the planet on the ring system, however, none of us picked up on this.

Screenshot from Starry Night of Saturn and attendant moons. We saw Titan, Dione, and Iapetus.

The Moon provided equal astonishment to the citizen observers. Large southern crater, Schickard straddled the terminator as it emerged from a lunar night. Just to north and west of Mare Humorum, craters Mersenius and Billy were bold enough to catch one's attention. Well formed with nice shadows, these two craters bridged the daytime time sky in the east with the morning sky in the west.

Many remarked on the "spider web" appearance of Copernicus' ejecta blanket. My eye followed the trail from Copernicus to Kepler stopping in the north at Aristarchus, Herodotus, and Vallis Schroter caught my eye.

20090114 - Up in the sky

This morning the Moon descended in the western horizon. Big and bright on a blue morning sky.

Today Venus reached greatest elongation at 47° east of the Sun. This is the bright object many see in the NYC sky at twilight and well into the evening, setting a few minutes earlier than 9pm EST. Look south and southeast, it is the brightest light in teh sky and could be mistaken for a helicopter - or, for some maybe a UFO.

Mare Orientale

Session name: 20081015.2024
Equipment: Takahashi FS-102 refractor
Location: Drip Rock
Conditions: Scattered clouds, clear by Moon and calm air, mild temperature in the 60s.
Seeing: AII - AIII
Transparency: Decent
Traffic flow: very low (qty - 5)

Photo caption: Pete Lawrence's images of Mare Orientale on iPhone from Central Park

I was encouraged for this session after discovering the Pete Lawrence photos of Mare Orientale via a circuitous route in the lunar-observing yahoo group. In fact, I used the image to properly identify the features I could see in the eyepiece even if it was a day's difference. Later, a passerby stopped when I was packing. We chatted and he asked some questions about the moon. To show him what I was observing I whipped out the iPhone to display the very feature I scrutinized.

The concurrence of favorable libration, a proper phase, clear weather, and a reasonable hour is not too common. In my observing career, I only have a few observations of Mare Orientale, this one not the best. At the beginning of the session while the scope cooled down, there was some boiling seen along the limb. As the Moon climbed higher and the scope cooled down and the moments of steady seeing increased, the observation offered more detail.

East of Lacus Autumni, I observed two peaks on the limb. The outer one (north/Montes Cordillera?) was more prominent and a sharper shape compared with the nearby inner peak (Montes Rook?). For the inner peak, the side closest the northern peak appeared to have a gradual rise from behind the ridge of Montes Cordillera and at the peak a small indent or cleft was observed which then the wall fell sharply. What appeared to start from the outer peak, a ridge ran parallel inside of the moon limb for good length, about ~2 1/4 ~ 2 1/2 Lacus Autumni-lengths. This ridge was interrupted by the crater Eischstadt. The ridge I suspect was Montes Cordillera. Further south along the limb, I saw two small humps that I assumed were the corresponding peaks of the pair north. My notes describe these as undulations and not as pronounced as the pair above. Contrasting with the northern pair, the inner peak of the southern pair has the sharper, peaked figure.

What did the Moon like this evening? Check astromick's shots

Passersby and the Moon

I never consider observing the Moon old hat. Some pedestrians remark with disdain, "Only the Moon." after I answer their original question of what am I looking at with the telescope. Regardless, I offer them some eyepiece time to observe the Moon at magnification 63x or 91x, whichever is available at the time. Their expressions belie their disinterest, they marvel at craters and dramatic landscapes skirting the terminator. If the opportunity avails, I swap out the eyepiece for a lower magnification where the entire Moon appears suspended in thin, black air. Many thank me, many shake my hand. The Moon has shook them.

Autumn Sights

It's Autumn and migration season for the birds flying south. All night long with regular frequency, we could see birds crossing the face of the Moon when looking in the telescope. Most would flutter across, wings beating, tiny compared to the disk of the Moon in the field of view. It appeared to be random trajectories, but watching them fly by most ingressed from the terminator side, corresponding roughly to a north - south direction. I asked some of the folks about how birds might use the Moon for migration and navigation but no one really knew.

Schiller-Zucchius Basin

Session name: 20081010.1900
Equipment: Teleport 10" Reflector
Location: Top of the Lawn
Conditions: Clear night and calm air, mild temperature in the 60s but okay for t-shirt.
Traffic flow: ---
Objects observed: Moon, Jupiter, Callisto transit, Neptune, Albireo, Double Cluster, M31/32, M51.

Photo Caption: Mark up of LO4-154H3; a filtered image sourced from Charles Byrne [1]
Here or photo for larger version of mark up or larger clean, unmarked image.
The original LO4-154H3

The intent of this session was to continue to watch the lunation unfold towards Full Moon from previous sessions over past few days. The waxing gibbous Moon was ~11 days 15 hours with favorable libration for the southern polar region. Mare Australe was apparent on the SE limb and Newton was entirely visible inside the horn of the terminator's crescent.

Three conspicuous craters of apparent equal size sit within the terminator in the south southwest: Zucchius, Bettinus, and Kircher. A fourth one, Segner, abuts Zucchius to the north but appears more shallow and slightly more elongated. I've seen these craters many times before but never noticed the arcuate ridges that stretch between Schiller and Segner.

Two scarps are apparent, not as strongly as those of Mare Nectaris, but nonetheless obvious once they are detected. The outer ring wall arcs from Schiller past the intersection of craters Rost and Rost A, past crater Weigel up to Zucchius-Segner meet point. The inner ring can be seen as an arc from Schiller inside of Weigel and stopped by Segner.

[1] Byrne, Charles J. Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon. Springer-Verlag. 2005.

36 hour Crescent Moon

Session name: 20080506.1915


Another image of the recent crescent Moon, age 35h 55m, taken handheld through 7x50 binoculars. The vertical line doesn't look like a good thing.
How does one clean up the noise? I use gimp for cropping but haven't done any type of clean up.
Directions.
The Moon sets toward the 5:00~5:30 direction and is approximately Lunar East. Lunar North is near the cusp on the right side.

Crescent Moon and Bright Nights

Session name: 20080506.1915

This evening was much more fruitful. A teaspoon of the lunar disk, accompanied by ruddy-colored Mercury, settled into the trees on the western horizon after sunset. When the sky darkened during twilight and the mostly cloudy sky cleared to partly cloudy, a graceful, silvery curve appeared among the clouds.

Young Sasha, around 6 years old, walked to the tripod and peered through binoculars for the first time at the Moon . I asked her what shape saw and she replied, tracing her finger along her chin, "a smile".

I couldn't make out any specific details of the crescent Moon. Mostly because I didn't look at any references. I looked for librated maria but didn't see anything. The cusps were beautiful as slender illuminated horns that held whispered light and dark at the extreme tips. I doubt it was M. Crisium but I did see a notch in that general area of the moon.

Maybe a dozen or more people would pass by. Ken the Pilot, stopped and chatted for a while, not having seen him for many months. When he arrived I remember how forbidding the western sky looked. Dark and opaque, low clouds wore rain skirts that fell away. Our persistence proved that Mother Nature is fickle. The clouds moved to the east with a steady pace leaving fairly clear skies after sunset.

Looking manhattan-west from TotL image of Moon & Mercury.
Same image but unmarked of Mercury & Moon & Mercury setting.

Ken and I hosted others stopping and asking for what we were looking. I described how this crescent moon just passed alignment with the sun some 36 hours ago. (I mentioned the 12 hour crescent of yesterday but that may have fallen on deaf ears.) For those that arrived after the sunset, we observed the crescent, Mercury, and Saturn naked eye and through the 22x powered binoculars.

On crescent moons I like to remind the passersby of that we refer to near side and far side of the moon and that both sides receive sunlight. The crescent is just portion of the illuminated hemisphere where the majority of sunlight is falling on the far side. The crescent- shaped line we see separates night an day, the morning terminator line.

The near side of the Moon never really experiences dark nights. A person standing on the near side during New Moon is looking out into their night sky. (The far side is experiencing day.) And on this crescent evening where a lunar observer situated on the center of the Moon, Earth would be in waning gibbous phase, just past Full Earth.

This lunar observer would see a huge 2° disk reflecting much light back on to the Moon. We refer to this light as Earthshine and allows earth observers to see the Moon outlined and dimly illuminated on the background sky. For the lunar-based observer, one would mostly likely see their shadow from this Earthshine. Over time the Earth's phase wanes to New Earth but the lunar morning terminator advances. When the phase is New Earth for the lunar-based observer, it is Full Moon for the Earth-based observer.

This brief session provided more interaction than I expected. A birder and a photographer couple stopped and remarked of the sunset's beauty. At that time, I had just snapped some photos of a fan-shaped light - crepuscular rays - from the direction of the Sun. A man in a wheel chair described the sky in Argentina where he recently broke his foot. Later, the Columbia U. neuroscience student would ask after seeing Saturn & Titan if I return often to this spot. And others asked for looks and expressed delight and fascination with our solar system neighbors. Easily missed, otherwise unnoticed, but that wasn't going to happen from the Top of the Lawn.

Chasing a very, very, young crescent moon

Session name: 20080505.1830

This crescent moon had all the makings for a record. A personal record and one that would rank in an area where few have succeeded. A 12 hour crescent moon set in the west with best of all conditions - except the weather.

The Moon is an Aries.
The angle of the ecliptic by Aries is nearly vertical to the horizon when setting.
The Moon is north of the ecliptic, increasing the angle to the horizon and situauting the Moon more vertical to the Sun.
Elongation was 8°32'E with illumination at 0.6%.
Exceeds Danjon's Limit of 7° or 7°30'.
Moon's age at sunset was 11h37m; age at the the time of predicted sighting 11h58m when the Sun was a little more than 4° below the horizon and the Moon at an altitude a little greater than 3°.

File a report or get details at crescentmoonwatch.org. I submitted one indicating crescent not seen.
If the weather agrees we can observe a 36 hour crescent Moon this evening. Still a splendid, magical sight of our sister world that laps the Sun with us. If you have binoculars or a telescope watch sunrise beginning in Mare Crisium and Mare Anguis.

Articles:
A Method for Predicting the First Sighting of the New Crescent Moon (Yallop)
Calculating the length of crescent moon (cusp to cusp) (Sultan)
First Visibility: Beyond Danjon's Limit (Sultan)

Search for H. R. Blackwell

Crescent moon alert

Moon Watch at sunset tonight.

Tonight at sunset 5:20PM EST, look for the new crescent moon a little greater than the width of fist off the southwestern horizon. A very young moon, the 18h35m moon rides atop a steep ecliptic which provides a greater elongation from the Sun than an inclined ecliptic, dramatically increasing chances of success. As the Sun sets below the horizon, the moon is setting also but remains above the horizon longer. The moon is just shy of 7 degrees above the horizon at sunset. Further, the sky darkens and contrast increases to help sight the slender, wispy lunar limb. With its angle of attack the limb will appear like a smile, perhaps with some lumpiness. Locally, the moon sets at 6:06PM EST.

Here in NYC, I recommend a pair of binoculars at the least to spot it and then try naked eye after it is located. Forecast calls for clouds at 5:20PM EST but they've been wrong before. Go ahead and try.

The Sun sets at azimuth 250°at 5:20PM EST. The crescent moon hangs above that point in an "11:30" position, as noted in the illustration above. If sky conditions are agreeable, I anticipate a sighting about 14 ~ 18 minutes after sunset.

Regardless, try for the crescent tonight and then submit your report to the organization linked above.

With the gang - 17P/Holmes

Session name: 20071027.1935

Larger images: Marked up | Unmarked
Compare with this Perseus image from this post, where Comet Holmes is obviously unseen in the general area.

The comet continued to capture out attention and interest. Under other circumstances a disappointing lunar occultation of the Pleiades past midway on our moonrise would have been center stage. But not. Not with the comet of 2007 juicing up Perseus. Tycho had SN1572 in Cassiopeia and we have comet Holmes. Different as they are in nature is as great as the excitement of this new temporal light in the sky.

I arrived at TotL to see Ben already set up with his Tele Vue 76 aimed at Comet Holmes. He invited me to the scope asking if I saw any peculiar features. After getting eyepiece-adapted, a bright stellar point was visible on the interior, southwest edge of the nucleus. This larger nucleus continued to appear off center towards the east-southeast direction (towards the trailing side in the refractor's field of view) within the coma. The coma's circumference had a bright, consistent brightness, however, its interior was uneven with some dark patches. This was most pronounced on the leading edge, like a backward "C". This was the greater side of the coma as mentioned earlier that the nucleus was slightly displaced to the trailing side. AAA'er Bruce Kamiat (report) pointed out this feature which Ben & I agreed to seeing.

Ben & I disagreed on sizes. At first, I grossly over-estimated the size with a wrong mental image of Jupiter. I suggested the size of the nucleus to be something four jovian diameters, the overall sie of the head to about 6 jovian disks. Ben's estimate was more reserved as one jovian disk. Mars had cleared the trees so we used the ~12 arc second martian diameter to measure the components of the comet's head. I estimated the nucleus to be 3~4 martian diameters across, if I remember Ben's was less. On the leading edge, the coma was about 2 nucleus diameters and on the trailing edge about 1 1/2 nucleus diameters.

Down to our south, an area we call Turtle Pond Observatory (TPO) another crowd of astronomers had naked eye and optics turned to the sky to show the passing public. Turns out it was Kentaurian with some of the AAA'ers: Rich Rosenberg, Bruce Kamiat, and Joe; Rik Davis joined shortly after. They came up to TotL to join in on the cheer. Hawaiian George came by and so did Team Totl'er Kin riding in with a small group of TIME'S UP! riders led by Rich. Debbie, a dog owner, who used to observe with us appeared tonight. We had a thin regular flow of pedestrians passing through as we were eager to share sights with pointed fingers and optics.

Seeing was not the best and a light breeze caused scope shake when the magnification was increased to 117x on the Takahashi refractor. When the air calmed for a steady view the Moon was absolutely stunning along the terminator. Cruising along the line sunset it was difficult to ignore craters Langranus and Petavius. Rimae Petavius runs across the crater's floor. To the northeast, sunset begins where the far eastern walls of Mare Crisium try to repel blackness. Not for long.

A small diversion while near the comet was to spot NGC1528. A bright open cluster that I prefer with a darker sky without a nearby ~17d moon. Tonight only the brighter members stood out in a loose, sparse arrangement of crisscrossing arcs of stars. The same comments apply for M31 and M32 but for one pedestrian we gave here a small survey of the different heavenly objects.

During our observing session we placed a towel on one of the street lamps to block of the glare in our direction. The other lamp to our east spilled its light casting long thin shadows to the west. From high in the east, Moonlight competed casting darker, harder, shorter shadows. Crisp as bacon.

Lastly we visited Mars before packing up. It was still rising and seeing was not greatat even at an altitude of ~34°. I thought I may have seen some detail at magnification 117x but it didn't agree with Brian Tung's Mars Map. I thought I saw a dark band running central across the diameter of the disk, rather a large chord instead of an equatorial band. The trailing limb had a greater darkening on it.

Kin, Ben and I packed up for the evening a bit past 1AM. We pulled the towel from the street lamp to bring back the illumination and shadows leaning east.

many moons ago ... and recently

Click image for larger marked up version.

Came across a lunar photo taken by astromick "moon earlier this month" (displayed to the left). When I saw it , it struck a nerve. Looked familiar. It did because it resembles the same image on my desktop photo. My photo was originally posted in the "Team TotL Assembles" posted back in November of 2006.

Overlooking the differences in quality, one can recognize and compare distinctive landmarks along the terminator, from north to south: crater Bürg in the center of Lacus Mortis, east of Aristoteles/Eudoxus pair with smaller craters Plana & Mason on the shore of the lake; Posidonius on the eastern shore of Mare Serenitatis, Fracastorius on the southern edge of Altai Scarp and Piccolomini a little bit south.

If one looks at the western limb past crater Grimaldi, one sees on astromick's image that libration is more favorable for Mare Orientale. Those little dark squiggles with mare colored floors are two lakes, Lacus Autumni & Veris, I look for when trying to locate and identify Mare Orientale.

Moving north along the western limb, Oceanus Procellarum shows more area as it is rocked in. Sinus Roris and Mare Frigoris appear farther from the limb. The triangle created with Aristarchus, Copernicus, and Kepler also appears rocked in farther from the limb.

image credit: astromick "moon earlier this month"
image credit: tags "Team TotL Assembles"

Blue sky, naked eye moon

On my way to work this morning, saw Moon nearly the same elevation as the roof tops of the southerly buildings lining 6th Ave. A beautiful clear, cerulean blue sky as a canvas. With foreground objects that included the tree twigs and the buildings, Moon looked larger than usual.

I noticed two brighter, grayish marks central to the waning gibbous. I stopped pulled out a piece of paper and srew a schematic of the features I could detect naked eye. The most noticeable were the two features just mentioned: Copernicus & Kepler; Aristarchus could be seen just above Kepler. Further along the top a brightening thick line partially crossed the disk. I suspected this to separate Mare Frigoris from Mare Imbrium.

The moon's western limb was brighter than the rest of the visible lunar disk and Grimaldi appeared to be nestled in the border around an 8:00 position. In towards the "center of the clock" from Grimaldi, two separate maria are discernible: Mare Nubium on the terminator side (east) and Mare Humorum was the western one. They appeared nearly equal in size. Above them the large, darkened floor of Oceanum Procellarum seemed to occupy most, but not all of the gibbous Moon. I suspected a thin whitish line encroaching from the east towards Copernicus. May have possibly seen the Apennines mountain range.

Crossing the street, Moon looked to be nearly centered over the avenue, that is manhattan-due-south . But Manhattan is rotated 30° so checked Planetarium for the Palm revealing its altitude/azimuth at 14°04'/208°43'.