A Nice Pair

[John]

One of my favourite lunar observing targets is well placed tonight, close to the terminator and with interesting illumination.

It's the crater pair Messier and Messier A in the Mare Fecunditatis. Messier A has distinctive long rays extending from it away from the nearby Messier. Interesting to think about how these two formed. Here is a piece by Charles A Wood on the pair:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/messier-on-the-moon/

Well worth looking out for these two if you have clear skies tonight and they should be visible in most scopes at a medium magnification.

 

 

[John]

By the way, heres how these two craters appeared from Apollo 11 in 1969. It's the high res version and the detail is amazing if you zoom in

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/images/print/AS11/42/6304.jpg

[niallk]

I'll have to get the binoviewers out

(Get them...!!)

[Yamez]

Ah, i have a book which i purchased all about lunar craters and observing them. I've seen this and it is a wonderful target on the moon. However my favorite target on the moon is  Rupes Recta (The straight wall)

Also that image is amazing, i love high res images on our moon.  Have you checked this out: http://target.lroc.asu.edu/q3/ You can keep zooming into the surface up to 0.5 meters per pixel.

[Astro Imp]

Unfortunately it's been raining most of the evening so no chance of observing tonight. I did managed to catch this pair last night but they were further from the terminator and not so well lit, the rays from Messier A were quite hard to see.

[laudropb]

Just in from viewing the Messier craters. Some nice views even though the seeing was not great.

[Knighty2112]

Was avoiding the moon tonight and had a cracking time viewing Uranus, NGC7662 & NGC6826 to name but a few things I viewed. Just finished 10 mins ago as the moon was just raising above my shrubbery to spoil the dark corner of my front garden. Hehe!  

[Timebandit]

Hi John. Just found your pair?.  Got the Az out and the 120 apo and a nice Pentax in.  Sky's have been clear but clouds starting to move across now.Took a little bit of searching for and confirmed with the photo on your link page. But it's there alright . A confirmation target for me and I know now what it's called now . Learned something new tonight☺

[John]

2 hours ago, Yamez said:

 

......  Have you checked this out: http://target.lroc.asu.edu/q3/ You can keep zooming into the surface up to 0.5 meters per pixel.

What an amazing tool that is ! - thanks for posting the link

 

[Paul73]

9 hours ago, Yamez said:

Ah, i have a book which i purchased all about lunar craters and observing them. I've seen this and it is a wonderful target on the moon. However my favorite target on the moon is  Rupes Recta (The straight wall)

Also that image is amazing, i love high res images on our moon.  Have you checked this out: http://target.lroc.asu.edu/q3/ You can keep zooming into the surface up to 0.5 meters per pixel.

Thanks Yamez

I'm going to be late for work now!!??

Paul

[Yamez]

56 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

Thanks Yamez

I'm going to be late for work now!!??

Paul

Haha, it's an amazing website. I spent a lot of time searching and looking at the apollo landings, you can see the actual landing modules, also can see the trails the lunar rovers have created.

[MoonNut]

You can do the Lunar 100 in about 10 minutes with that site!!

[mikeyj1]

On 18/10/2016 at 22:01, Yamez said:

Ah, i have a book which i purchased all about lunar craters and observing them. I've seen this and it is a wonderful target on the moon. However my favorite target on the moon is  Rupes Recta (The straight wall)

Also that image is amazing, i love high res images on our moon.  Have you checked this out: http://target.lroc.asu.edu/q3/ You can keep zooming into the surface up to 0.5 meters per pixel.

Thanks for the link, definitely a worthy bookmark 

[niallk]

Just been observing the Messier pair plus their amazing orthogonal ejecta patterns tonight  - really stunning at 250x in my 15", despite being at only 18° altitude here when I was out. Seeing didn't warrant higher mag tbh.

[Nyctimene]

John,

 thanks for the Sky and Telescope link - I never took notice of the "butterfly"-form ejecta near the craters; the explanation of the underlying mechanisms is very interesting!

Have you tried to spot the Rima Messier close by? It is a tough nut, even with an 18"; but I've seen it twice two years ago, using 512x mag with a 4mmf orthoscopic. I took the small craters Secchi X (4,8 km) and Secchi K (6,5 km) as pointers; the Rima Messier extends between them both. Never seen it in smaller scopes, but I'll give it a try again with the 13.1" Odyssey (which has got a good mirror) during the next months.

Stephan