Lunar MISSION:
POSSIBLE
The
Lunar
Chainsaw Massacre
04/01/05
For this first mission, you’re invited to divert your
attention to
the introduction...
Perhaps, the beauteous lunar goddess does indeed graciously smile on
Cloudy
Nights  . Much appropriate then
is the "ribbon cutting" introduction to the new Cloudy Nights lunar
column christened the Lunar MISSION:
POSSIBLE, or perhaps more aptly the "chain cutting" mission .
Let's start our "Lunar Chainsaw Massacre" by spying on the first
chain best viewed when the Moon is 8-day old.
Catena Davy, common known as the "Davy Chain". This chain of
craterlets is probably one of the most beautiful
and well known of all the crater chains on the Moon. The chain
starts at
Davy C in the middle of a 41km Crater
Davy Y and "links" to the east toward Crater Davy G. Individual
crater ranges from 1km to 3km in diameter
totaling about a dozen craterlets and stretches about 51km in length.
How many
can you see? (Light Cup Note:
1km craterlet is gonna be really tough for a small telescope. ). My
Light Cup can't help but wonder if Davy
Crocket himself might have hiked the Appalachian Trail similar to the
"Davy Chain" . Now how many craterlets
can you really
see through your telescope  ?
There are two theories as to the origin of Catena Davy: secondary
impact or
volcanic origin. Why not
infiltrate the area and discover the true plot  .
Below is a stunning photo of Catena Davy from Apollo 16.
Photo courtesy of NASA
Try this 3-D surveillance trick on this image
using a red and green filter (we used #23 and #56 filters, one on
each eyeball and behold at 18 inches from the monitor). Can you
see the
depth of the "massacre" ?
While in the area, there's another bonus and beautiful crater chain
immediately to the east of beautiful Crater
Ptolemaeus. This chain-let is composed of 4 craterlets one of which is
a 4km
Crater Muller F. My Light Cup
christened it the "Ptolemaeus Chainlet"  .
Next "chain-saw massacre" victim is one of the Light Cup's
favorite, Catena Abulfeda (the "Abulfeda Chain").
This is most interesting as the chain takes on an appearance of a
hair-like
golden gray-hair strand (which might
have fallen off from the 'Old Man on the Moon' )
when Crater Abulfeda is
touching the lunar terminator.
This gyve is a whopping 216km in length and starts out from the
southern rim of
Crater Abulfeda; with 'em
chain links passing northern rim of Crater Almanon and continue to
near
the Altai Scarp (Rupes Altai). Best
time to observe is 6-day Moon.
The last chain is not well known (at least not known to my Light Cup
 ).
It is very tough to observe as it is
near the lunar limb: Yet, in the opinion of my Light Cup, Catena Krafft
is
quite unique in that it links two fairly
small craters together: Crater Krafft and Crater Cardanus. Catena
Krafft
would have taken the lime light from
the Davy Chain if it were not for its location near the lunar limb  .
But make no mistakes; it's a tough feature for a small
telescope. On
the night I saw it with my 5.1" TMB130LW
APO refractor, the seeing was poor (right after a rain storm) and I
was only
able to use 156x (5mm TMB
SuperMono eyepiece). The 61km Catena Krafft looked more like a
rille to
me than a chain of craterlets,
extending from Crater Cardanus, which forms a "V" shape with an
emanating whitish ray from the crater's
rim. The "rille-like" chain takes on width to about 1/2 way
between Crater Cardanus and Crater Krafft during
moments of seeing steadiness with the other half only seen as hairline
when seeing snapping settled down.
Perhaps this photo from the Lunar Orbiter (which isn't constraint
by the lunar limb )
illustrates its true nature.
Lunar Orbiter photo courtesy of NASA
Timing is everything for the night I saw it was full Moon and the
sun angle
was already too high. I suspect
that a 13-day old Moon would have been ideal, just one day before full
Moon. Here's a lousy sketch
I made of the feature which my SuperLight Cup kept telling me that it's
'em two
spies shackled by the
chain-linked handcuff. My SuperLight Cup christened a layman name
"Handcuff
Craters"  for
Crater
Krafft, Crater Cardanus and Catena Krafft! Using your "spy
glass", what do you
see? Finally, please look
here at this excellent sketch by Matt on CN forum.
Artist Canvas
courtesy of Matt L.
In closing, now that you've done some lunar stakeout, you may
realize that
many parts of the Moon had
"literally been massacred" billions of years ago. With the advent of
geological "lunar forensic" science (for
which my Light Cup is an ardent intern ),
it is also intriguing to ponder on
the what’s, the why's, the
when's, and the how's of the lunar victims.
On the behalf of Cloudy Nights, we hope you enjoy this first Lunar MISSION:
POSSIBLE "spy chains". We
expect to bring with each semi-regular
mission, wondrous, exciting,
beautiful often mysterious and perhaps
secretive features of our closest "cold-war" neighbor. It's my
Light Cup's fondest wish that our die-hart DSO
observing buddies will join us in our mission to conduct surveillance
of the
Moon as well. Together, there shall
be no part of the universe left untapped  .
Suggested
Deep-Cover Espionage
Catena
Davy. The Modern Moon A Personal View, pg. 143
Catena Abulfeda. The Modern Moon A Personal View, pg. 111
Catena Krafft. The Modern Moon A Personal View, pg. 185
Chains of Craterlets (LCAS)
Crater Deslande - no name chain in which my Light Cup christened
"Deslande Chainlet"
Unless otherwise noted, all photos in
this
article are courtesy of the Consolidated
Lunar Atlas.
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