Equipment 6” Orion Intelliscope Dobsonian
Eyepiece 8.8 Meade UWA (139x)
Seeing: 4/5 Very Good
Transparency: 3/5 Fair
Working towards completing my Lunar Club Pin for the Astronomical League. This is one fun project, and I encourage everyone to find out more information. Viewing the Moon used to be rather dull, interesting but only marginally so. Now with this observing list from the Astronomical League, it really opens up a whole new perspective. The Moon is now very fun and challenging, and I long for more difficult targets in the future.
Palus Epidemiarum - Fine dark region (mare). Nice small craters create some contrast. Really like the 2 mountainous rock formations that run at the 4 o’clock position of the crater.
Clavis – Right now a great view. Really like this crater, not to far from the terminator right now. Covered almost 50 percent with shadow, but 3 craters in the bed of the main crater.
Eratosthenes – Easy to follow from Sea of Serenity, follow the ridges towards Copernicus, and Eratosthenes is at the end of the mountains. Has nice inner rings, almost 3, and a nice rocky formation in center of crater, 3 mountains, like cross almost.
NOTE Rupus Recta not nearly as pronounced tonight as it was last night. This really shows how much the lunar phase plays in viewing certain objects like this. Low Sun angle would mean more shadows and thus better contrast to objects.
Plinius - Has a nice bright ring around the crater wall. Nice contrast to Sea of Serenity below it. I has bright features in the center of the crater as well, with maybe 11 very small craters or mountains in the crater itself.
Mitchell - Next to the prominent Aristotle’s crater. Not very exciting.
Cassini A – Nice crater, 2 prominent craters, A and B I presume in the main crater Cassini. Hint of very small craters or mountains to the upper (in tonight’s viewing angle)
Manilius - Very easy to find. Nice rater, with almost a nose and smiley face appearance. Nose is center ridge, and mouth has to be inner ring maybe
Davy - A bright crater, but I thought the line of very small craters leading from Ptolemaeus E to Davy was more interesting
Pitatus - Neat, I like the way it joins to the other crater Hesidus
Fra Mauro - Has a nice feature that appears to go perpendicular to the image I see from VMA. I really like the horseshoe shape of Parry M to the upper left.
Hippalus - Easy to find, follow Bullialdus to Konig, Konig points to Hippalus. It has a wall feature, that extends to Rupes Kelvin. It’s a crater that is flooded, shaped like a “C” and I can see 3 ridges now that seem to go from Hippalus to Rupes in an arc.
Herschel J - Least interesting so far. Can find Herschel easy enough, can perhaps make out J as the barren feature between the not very prominent valley close to Herschel and the more prominent K of Ptolemaeus.
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