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David Knisely
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Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 6881
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Re: Guide to PLATO craterlets
07/19/05 02:11 AM Attachment (99 downloads)
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photonovore wrote:
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There are at least half a dozen more craters 1km & larger than shown.
Well, the orginal image is from Lunar Orbiter IV, and shows probably more than 50 craterlets. The exact scale is not certain (error in the listed crater diameters is probably on the order of +/- 0.3 km), but I did measurements from the original Lunar Orbiter image frame which had decent scale data available. There are very few craters of a size significantly larger than the ones labled in the image (i.e. those that probably exceed nearly a kilometer in width. The ones I labled are those which Maurizio Di Scuillo and I had extensive discussions on when reviewing his highest resolution image which showed significantly more than the usual 4 to 6 craterlets most often reported (taken with a 10 inch planetary Newtonian BTW). I wish I could pull up that old image, but it showed clear indications of around 20 possible craterlets. I should probably eliminate everything 1 km or below just to keep the diagram a little less cluttered.
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'h' is indicated plainly separated on the pre-LO LAC chart of Plato (made using photos from various large observatory telescopes and visually checked with the Lowell refractor) and Higgins' photos with his 18" also shows them plainly separated & resolved so they may not be all that difficult to resolve with a larger instrument.
I suppose it depends on how one defines a "large" instrument . I find h to be rather difficult in my 10 inch, and usually, I see only the "big-4 +1" e and f, and occasionally g and h under excellent conditions. Once, I did manage i and j, but they were marginal at best. If the sun is high at all, only the "Big Four" tend to be visible. Of course, there are many times when even in Hyde's C14, all we would see would be the "Big Four".
Quote:
On the same note, the LAC also clearly indicates 'p' as two craters, one irregular and slightly larger on it's major axis; which is accurate as the LO photo shows the southern is indeed an irregular form with the third between them as an invisibly small crater of less than .5km--but there is no hope of seeing this crater with any telescope, even as an additive, unresolved feature.
The Lunar Orbiter image of Plato clearly shows that p is indeed a triple, but the third member is, as you indicated, probably not visible from ground-based telescopes. It is a much shallower pit sitting adjacent to the other two, and the mentioning that p is a triple was not to indicate that three craterlets are visible in the telescope. Below is a section of the original L.O. image enlarged and enhanced a bit (with "p" enlarged) to make the numerous crater pits more easily seen. Clear skies to you.
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