Telescope Reviews: Lunation 1038

Sorry to be a day late in getting these up. Here are my photos an report for my session last night. It went back to fog and clouds just a couple hours after I got these and looks like I'll be shut out for a bit...

Moon Tour along the terminator. Waxing gibbous, 1 Dec 06, 2030-2200L (1930-2100 UTC). Orion 127mm StarMax Mak-Cas with an NX Vega 3000 webcam. Seeing 4/5. Desenzano del Garda, Italy.

Yesterday’s sunrise on the Jura Mountains has given way to full illumination on Sinus Iridium. The “Moon Maiden” in Cape Heraclides (a mermaid if you include crater Bianchini as the tail flukes) lounges on the shore of Mare Imbrium as a series of shallow waves undulates across the mare floor towards her. On the terminator behind her, craters Harpalus and Mairan have just emerged into daylight although their floors remain shadowed. Herpalus shows an interesting double margin with a roll of material running around the outside below a sharp rim. Although the libration is unfavorable, crater Carpenter is peaking up into the sun on the lunar limb.

Southward of the Maiden, waves continue to roll in on the shores of Imbrium, having passed between crater Gruithuisen and Montes Harbinger. Like Herpalus, Aristarchus is emerging and shows a double rim on the sunward edge. West of Kepler and Encke lie a pair of partially buried craters, flooded with mare lavas from the southwest. Still further southwest lies a crater almost completely erased, filled with mare lava until just a few scattered tips of its rim remain, revealing themselves in the extreme low sun of lunar dawn. In contrast to this ghostly remnant, crater Flamsteed punctuates its southern rim with a sharp young appearance. Immediately southward from Flamsteed, perhaps five or more flooded craters reveal themselves in the morning light.

Standing in sharp contrast to these subtle features, Gassendi and Gassendi A and B jump out. Within Gassendi, the central peak appears to have not just one summit but three forming a compact arc. Jutting from the southwest edge of Gassendi into Mare Humorum is a bright wedge, part of a concentric system of rings encircling the floor of Mare Humorum. These cracks give the appearance of a collapsed floor to the mare as the underlying lavas erupted, similar to giant caldera eruptions on Earth. Southeast of Mare Humorum, a trio of rilles follows the southeastern shape of the mare basin cutting between craters Campanus and Hippalus but then curving northeast.

Below Humorum, a pair of prominent overlapping craters appear. Hainzel shows a distinct “peanut” shape with the appearance of a central peak in each lobe of the crater. In contrast, the larger Schiller shows only one peak on the northern portion while the southern half shows a clean smooth floor. The surrounding terrain is heavily cratered with a hodgepodge of young, old, large and small craters. To the southeast, Clavius delights the casual viewer. An old appearing crater with battered walls, Clavius contains several younger impacts within its bowl. Rutherford lies at the head of a chain of five craters almost equally spaced and uniformly descending in size as they arc gracefully across the floor of Clavius. Porter mirrors Rutherford on the opposite wall. At least 15 other tiny craters lie scattered across the floor.

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Steve
16" Meade LightBridge (Beowulf)
10" Hardin DSH, StarMax 127mm Mak, PST H-a
Oberwerk 11 x 70 binocs, Tasco 10 x 50 binocs

Santa Maria Clear Sky Clock

Figueroa Mt Clear Sky Clock