Rising Moon

[Mak the Night]

I caught a lucky break between the clouds and observed a rising Moon around 03:40 - 04:00 with my 90mm Mak at 66.6x and 100x (Moon in Sagittarius, azimuth 314° SE, altitude 7.1° to 318°SE, 9.2°). Seeing was above average when the Moon wasn’t veiled in clouds.

Terminator shadows were quite distinct with Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel particularly striking.

The Montes Apenninus were also very well defined.

[Knighty2112]

Nice report. Did some observations  last night until 11:30pm on Jupiter & M65 & M66. Would have loved to get up early to look at the Moon, Saturn & Mars, and have a stab at the comet 252P/Linear too in the early morning sky. Alas, as I'm away for work this morning that put a stop to that. Now wish I had after reading your report on the Moon.  

[laudropb]

Nice report. Unfortunately another cloudy night here.

[Mak the Night]

7 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Nice report. Did some observations  last night until 11:30pm on Jupiter & M65 & M66. Would have loved to get up early to look at the Moon, Saturn & Mars, and have a stab at the comet 252P/Linear too in the early morning sky. Alas, as I'm away for work this morning that put a stop to that. Now wish I had after reading your report on the Moon.  

Thanks. I had a feeling the (virtually) Last Quarter Terminator shadows would be good if I got the chance. I saw Jupiter and M42 earlier too, but the seeing wasn't as good as I'd have liked.

[Mak the Night]

4 hours ago, laudropb said:

Nice report. Unfortunately another cloudy night here.

Thanks. It was actually cloudy when I set up, the beauty of a little portable Mak is that I just need a garden table lol, but I could see the Moon shining behind the clouds. I decided to wait 10 mins to see what the conditions would be like. Within 5 mins I was rewarded with a fairly clear Moon.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report and well done for taking a chance. The moon is becoming my favourite observing target always plenty to see.

Thanks for posting.

[Mak the Night]

25 minutes ago, Astro Imp said:

Nice report and well done for taking a chance. The moon is becoming my favourite observing target always plenty to see.

Thanks for posting.

Thanks, I've always liked lunar observing. The little 90mm grab'n'go Mak makes it easier to take advantage of breaks in the weather.

[Mak the Night]

Took another look at the rising Moon (Moonrise @ 03:19 BST) this morning at around 04:00 - 04:40. The conditions weren’t as good as yesterday morning and cloud ended the session with the Moon at 315.9° SE at an altitude of 8.9° (Sagittarius). Before the seeing deteriorated I could see some good Terminator detail at 100x around Clavius in the lunar southern highlands using a 10mm Baader Eudiascopic.

Later, as a light cloud haze started to develop over the Moon,  I dropped magnification to about 53x after discovering that my 19mm Panoptic is light enough to use in the 90mm Mak. Further north the Bay of Rainbows looked good with the western cliffs of the Montes Teneriffe reflecting light well whilst being contrasted with the Terminator shadows.