120mm F8.3 Refractor

5mm Celestron X-Cel (200x)

The warmer weather and clear skies we've been getting over the past few days has tempted me to catch up on some lunar observing. To be frank, I've been avoiding the Moon for a while because I had difficulty identifying Lunar features whilst contorting myself into a convenient position to see through the refractor with a star diagonal - mirror-image and randomly rotated depending on which side of the 'scope I'm standing. But freshly armed with a copy of Virtual Moon Atlas I'm now learning to navigate my way around the Moon's face. So this will be a personal exercise in indentifying basic Lunar features and not an in-depth observation of those features...

Friday 8th April, 8-9:30pm

Started off in the Cauchy region, and the Cauchy crater at one end of Rima Cauchy, and Rupes Cauchy just below it. Then up to the Serpentine Ridge - Dorsa Smirnov. Right on the terminator, it was probably the most obvious feature of the night, wending it's way up Mare Serenitatis. To the east is another ridge system Dorsa Aldovandri. Just above it is Posidonius crater, with a deep shadow to it's eastern edge, and the smaller Posidonius A crater inside. Further north to Burg, a small deeper-looking crater in Lacus Mortis.

From there, back down through Mare Tranquilitatis, past Maskelyne, the curiously shaped Toricelli (a dark scar to it's east, extending from Isidorus C), down to Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina, and Rupes Altai just coming into view. Below the horseshoe-shaped Fracastorius, it gets a bit confusing in the heavily crater south.

Saturday 9th April, 8-10pm.

Tonight I began in the south with the Rupes Altai a 250 mile long Scarp that terminates at the Piccolomini crater. Then northwards to Mare Tranquilitatis, and Sabine and Ritter, with the smaller Ritter C, B and D above. Just below Sabine, the ovoid Hypatia c, and the distorted main Hypatia crater. So back up to Ritter, Manners and Arago. To the west of Manners, the thin dark scar of the Rima Ariadaeus Rille, and the tiny Ariadaeus crater at it's end. The shadows along the terminator formed another dark, straight 'feature' along the North-Eastern edge of the large Julius Caesar crater. I found this whole area to be an interesting region, and one that I want to further explore at a later date.

Pass Maclear, Ross, and Plinius and across the smooth floor of Serenitatis. Revisiting last nights favourite, the Serpentine Ridge, it was interesting to note how much harder it was to find without the shadow along it's western edge to help pick it out, and how dramatically the Lunar landscape changes in just 24 hours. To the north of Serenitatis, the convoluted edges of the Caucasus Mountains were just coming into sunlight. Buried in that edge is a small walled plain, Alexander, just 50 miles across. Onwards and upwards to the large craters Eudoxus and Aristoteles, the latter slightly overlapped by Mitchell. And finally C Mayer, and the oddly-named Sheepshanks...

I wasn't taking notes, so I've probably missed a few things out... including the isolated peaks somewhere in the north-east that were casting saw-toothed shadows, but I'm enjoying getting up-close a personal will El Luna again. :)