The Moon second night running

[The Warthog]

I went out about 11:00, but the Moon was hidden behind the tree that blocks my horizon up to 35 degrees to the east and northeast. I spent a while picking out clusters around Cassiopeia, then went back inside to study VMA for a few minutes, and find my lunar map and lighted magnifier. When I went out at about 12:15, the Moon had just cleared the tree. When I put the scope on it at first, I was still looking through some of the outer leaves. I was using my Antares 17mm Plossl, as I haven't used it in so long, and have been debating whether to get a 17.5mm Speers-WALER. More on that in another thread.

In a few minutes the Moon completely cleared the tree, and I was able to pick up the Snowman (Ptolemy, Alphonsus, and Azachiel, with Alpetragius as the snowball that is knocking the snowman's head off) and promptly mistook the small crater in the rim of Thebit for Birt. I think that one is Thebit A.

Once I got settled in comfortably, I went inside and got a nice Cuban Bances, and a can of Kitsilano Maple Cream Ale, something I have never done before (drinking while observing) but it produced a nice relaxed atmosphere to observe in. The night was cool, but I was still comfortable in a T-shirt, and there was only slightly more wind than on the previous night. The ghosts from my cigar dispersed a little more quickly, and tonight I had no dewing on the eps whatsoever. The seeing wasn't good, and the edges of the moon, and sometimes the surface, were fairly boiling, requiring me to wait occasionally to see a faint feature.

I put in the 7.5mm SWA (133x) and went after Mare Vaporum, my principal target for the night. I found the Mare itself pretty featureless at this magnification, although the variations between light and dark on the floor could make you think you were seeing some steam fog happening, (hence, Sea of Vapours) though I don't think the mare look anything like oceans.

To the southwest of Vaporum is a small mountain range, it appears to me, consisting of three rows of low mountains, pointing towards crater Julius Caesar. There is a small, eroded, but distinct crater in front of JC, but it is not named in my atlas, but according to VMA it is Boscovich E. I came back to this area several times, and eventually was able to pick out Rimae Hygenis, and Rimae Ariadaeus, neither of which I had seen before.

Looking at Mare Serenitatis, there is some topography on the east side of it that was not apparent the day before, a wrinkle paralleling the southeast edge, and some wrinkles farther north on the floor, and a tiny, perfect 'o' of a small crater on the southeast rim. It is 12 km in diameter, and turns out to be Sulpicius Gallus, named after a 3rd century Roman statesman. Maybe there's still hope for a 21st century Canadian civil servant, eh?

Aristotle and Eudoxus were right on the terminator, and Eudoxus is absolutely gorgeous in this light, the smooth top of the crater creating a bright semi circle on the south side.

Moving north, I followed the Snowman to Birt, easy at this magnification, and was able to pick up bits of Rupes Recta (The Straight Wall, one of my favorites.) I have only seen Rupes Recta illuminated from the east side, where it looks like a carpenter's pencil mark running past Birt, but fully illuminated it is bright, as the westward sloping scarp is covered in bright lunar material. Later, at 234x, I was able to pick out the whole of RR, and the small crater in the rim of Birt, which I actually hadn't seen before, but was easy in the 4.3mm W70 from Antares.

There's an area in the southern part that I spent quite a bit of time learning six weeks ago, a curving chain of craters: Abulfeda, Almanon, Geber, and Abenezra, all but the last one named after 8th to 10th century Arab scholars, the last a 12th century Jewish philosopher, lying cheek-by-jowl with Azophi, another old Arab. The last two point to Playfair, whose possible descendant was a really dirty player in the NHL. Following along southward, Gemma Frisius, and deep Goodacre are right on the terminator, with Maurolycius just to the south of them.

I took the time to watch a star being occulted at the bright limb, as I had been watching the Moon get closer and closer to it all night. Then I packed it in, sometime after 1:00. All in all, a perfect night of viewing. Watching the Moon is my meditation, and I always come away feeling relaxed.

[Albireo380]

Great report WH. Good that you could pick up the straight wall with a waning moon. Not sure about the drinking and observing bit though - only done that once and managed to cover one of the EPs on a pair of binoculars in mud - still don't know how it happened (hic). So never again.

Tom

[The Warthog]

Well, yeah. I can drop things when I'm perfectly sober, and one beer won't make me drunk, but if I do ruin an ep, someone (my Scottish wife, for instance) is going to blame the beer. BTW, I crawled around in the grass beneath my tripod today, and found the tiny allen key from my parfocalizing ring that I had lost the previous night. A good cigar sometimes leave me a little wobbly, though. I think I'll take a big mug of tea with me if I go out tonight. I've set up the Newt for tonight. Oh, I was looking through the ep from the side of the scope last night, and actually getting the Newtonian view, with north at the bottom. How you see things partly depends on where you sit with relation to the scope. It can be very confusing. Tonight, though, I'm using the Newt again.

[Talitha]

Well I'm glad you were able to get out again, WH. Congratulations on seeing Rimae Hyginus and Ariadaeus, and also on seeing the Wall during lunar sunset. It sure looks different when the fault is white instead of the familiar black.

[The Warthog]

It does, doesn't it? I saw it some more tonight amongst other things. I'll write that up tomorrow.

[The Warthog]

Ya know, I would go to a lunar star party, perhaps three days around last quarter, so we could all do lunar observing, and to hell with red lights!