A peek on the moon with a 76/300 MiniDob

[acr_astro]

Hi all,

usually I watch the moon with my 5" MAK or even with the 10" Dobsonian. However, yesterday I couldn't go out and the weather conditions weren't promising as well. So I decided to catch a glimpse of the moon with the small begínner scope Skywatcher Heritage 76/300 just through the closed window. First I wanted to have just a quick look but then I thought why not checking out what is possible with such a cheap and small Instrument under these poor conditions. I put in a 9mm Celestron reversed Kellner and a 2x Barlow.

So here we go with 66x magnification:

The most prominent feature was the crater trio Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina a bit east of the terminator. Theophilus' central peak was a bright pinpoint in on the grey bottom of the Eratosthenian crater  . The shadows of the rim was a small arc. The shadows of the older Nectarian craters Cyrillus and Catharina were connected. 

A bit further south, the arc of the Rupes Altai caught my attention - frankly even more as compared with higher magnifications on my other scopes. With this low magnification looking at the whole visible part of the moon one easily recognizes Rupes Altai being part of the rim of the Nectaris basin. At the southern edge of Mare Nectaris, the flooded crater Fracastorius appeared as a dark grey oval without further Features inside.

"Walking" further south through the lunar highlands, I spotted Piccolomini, the trio Pitiscus Hommel and Vlacq and if I'm not wrong the duo Mutus and Manzinus in the South.

One property of the moon which becomes more prominent with this low magnification are the lunar mare: The 500km oval Mare Crisium was really an eye catcher and further to the east Mare Marginis was visible too.

Looking at the northern half of the terminator zone, it was the hills of the southern rim of Mare Serenitatis with crater Plinius at its end which was catching my eye. A bit to the north east, crater Posidonius appeared as greyish disk. No floor details were visible. Here I would have appreciated a larger scope...

In the North of the terminator, a black oval with bright rim exactly on the terminator turned out as Aristoteles accompanied by smaller crater Mitchell. I ended my 20-minute lunar trip a bit to the east watching the duo Atlas and Hercules, both  appearing as more or less homogeneous grey ovals.

Conclusion:

Don't hesitate to watch the Earth's companion even with a small beginner scope!

Cheers,

Achim

[acr_astro]

Hi there,

just as an addition, find attached the small sketch I did during my lunar trip.

Disclaimer: I don't treat this as lunar sketching art - just a small helper to remember the features I observed.

Clear skies!

Achim

[acr_astro]

And finally, the a smartphone shot trough the 9mm EP with 2x Barlow and a cheap greenish moon filter. No real astrophotography - as well just a kind of Souvenir   

Achim

[Floater]

Good stuff, Achim.

I also had a look at the Moon through my window last night.

Had been at my local astronomy club meeting and spent a wonderful couple of hours looking through a choice of nice scopes at the usual kind of targets - Jupiter, Orion nebula, a double or two and even Lovejoy. But I hadnt prepared/kitted up for an outdoor session and got so cold it was very uncomfortable.

On returning home, the seeing was much poorer from my garden and I thought I should just get myself warm and then take off to a dark site. But I wimped out ...

Not sure if it was a guilt thing or just the usual itch, but I then compromised and looked at the moon through my double glazed window. What a joy! Lovely detailed views with only some slight shimmer. Even the present Mrs Floater said 'Oh wow!'

We were warm, comfortable and, dare I say it, had a wee something in a glass at hand.

As you wrote, don't hesitate to look at the Earth's companion - she's always worth it.