Hadley's Rille

[glowingturnip]

Always wanted to get a photo of this, a famous sinuous volcanic feature on the moon, initially thought to have been signs of ancient water flow, and site of the Apollo 15 landing - men have walked to the very edge of it !

 

(please do click through to Flickr and click again to see it at full HD)

 

 

The wide-view is  a 3-pane mosaic through a 2.5 barlow that you've probably seen in my other post, the middle inset was taken in the same session through an awkward arrangement of a 2x barlow in the back of a 2.5x barlow, and then the detail inset is a 4x blow-up - squeezing the pips out of my resolution !  Equipment as per sig, using the QHY, processed in Pixinsight.

 

 

Hadley's Rille, a sinuous rille located west of the Apollo 15 landing site, begins in an area of low domes at an elongated crater, Běla, and runs on to the North along the Apennine Mountain Range. Some research has suggested that both the rille and Běla are volcanic vents, and lava flows created the features. Another hypothesis suggests that the rille was originally an underground lava tube, the roof of which collapsed, creating the current appearance of the rille.

Hadley's Rille typically ranges in depth between 600 and 900 feet (180 and 270 m), but is approximately 1,200 feet (370 m) deep at the Apollo 15 landing site. The feature has a cumulative length of about 80 miles (130 km). The sides of the rille, at the Apollo 15 site, slope downwards at an angle of about 25 degrees. 

Before samples were returned from the Moon during the Apollo program, several scientists believed that the feature and other similar features were formed by flowing water. This hypothesis has since been changed, however, to attribute the process of the feature's creation to volcanism.

 

Hope you enjoy !

[Astro Imp]

I spent ages roaming round your full size image, I like that a lot.

[glowingturnip]

thank you mate, glad you like it, I do too !

[rodrigol]

awesome images and the composition you use for sharing is excellent!

[glowingturnip]

thank you !

[laudropb]

Very nice set. Lots of good detail captured.