Copernicus Looking Good

[John]

Very nice lunar views so far this evening despite some cloud drifting in and out occasionally

I've spent some time exploring the great crater Copernicus. Very nicely illuminated tonight with it's complex interior terraces, central peaks and crenellated rim showing in great detail at up to 300x with my ED120 refractor.

There are patches of darker material on it's flanks of ejecta which are peppared with small craters. Must have been quite an impact around 800 million years ago when it was formed !

Apparently Copernicus was a strong candidate for the Apollo 20 mission but sadly that programme did not get past 17. To partially make up for that, in 2012 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took some simply stunning views of the crater including it's central peaks. Zoom into the final two hi-res images and the detail is simply astonishing 

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/675

 

 

 

[Fozzie]

Too many clouds here tonight, and some bits to complete first.. tomorrow is looking fine and clear.. I'll be out enjoying lunar views then.. glad your enjoying the neighbour!

[David Levi]

Sinus Iridum on the edge of the Mare Imbrium stood out for me. The surrounding mountains were incredibly craggy. I'm back inside now but I didn't think that the seeing was great tonight. I only went to 200x magnification and there was a bit of turbulence to be seen. The view was still great though.

[John]

Yay !!!

Just observed the lunar occultation of the mag 6.6 red star in Pisces, HIP 1192. It just winked out as if it had been switched off !. Not an uncommon event of course but it's a little bit of magic to see it happening in real time though the eyepiece

[Fozzie]

There's a nice occultation on new years eve.. so I believe..

December 30/31st ~1 am: The Moon occults Aldebaran

The Moon occults Aldebaran

Just after 1 am on the morning of the 31st of December, the near full Moon will occult the red giant star Aldebaran that lies between us and the Hyades cluster.   It will dissapear behind the dark limb of the Moon just after 1 am - due to parallax,the time is dependent on your location in the UK - and reappear just before 2 am

taken from the JB website..

[iPeace]

It was all really good tonight. Highlights for me are some new favorites, Rima Hesiodus, Montes Riphaeus, Montes Carpatus and Dorsum Heim. Sinus Iridum particularly dramatic. Actually, wherever I looked from Clavius up past Mare Frigoris, was just great.
Put me in the mood to watch some old Apollo 11 footage.  

[John]

I was 9 years old when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Add following those events to Sir Patrick Moore and his books plus an astronomy club at my secondary school and the result is 40+ years of deep interest in astronomy

I'm off to dig out my NASA mission DVD's now .......

[cloudsweeper]

11 hours ago, John said:

Very nice lunar views so far this evening despite some cloud drifting in and out occasionally

I've spent some time exploring the great crater Copernicus. Very nicely illuminated tonight with it's complex interior terraces, central peaks and crenellated rim showing in great detail at up to 300x with my ED120 refractor.

There are patches of darker material on it's flanks of ejecta which are peppared with small craters. Must have been quite an impact around 800 million years ago when it was formed !

Apparently Copernicus was a strong candidate for the Apollo 20 mission but sadly that programme did not get past 17. To partially make up for that, in 2012 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took some simply stunning views of the crater including it's central peaks. Zoom into the final two hi-res images and the detail is simply astonishing 

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/675

 

 

 

Very eloquent description John - I'll have to take a much closer look (if conditions allow)!

Doug.

[Peter Drew]

I was with you all on this one last night, same Moon albeit from Tenerife. I have a C8 here and the first look through the finder lining it up I noticed how prominent and silvery was the crescent of Sinus Iridum. The "cusp" nearest to Copernicus was casting a jet black triangular shadow on to the surroundings. Copernicus was well placed, the terracing of its walls showing differences on opposite sides due to the illumination. Another highlight was Clavius, I counted 25 craters within its walls without including Rutherford and Porter. I tried very hard to see the central rille in the Alpine Valley but no luck. 

[paulastro]

17 hours ago, John said:

Very nice lunar views so far this evening despite some cloud drifting in and out occasionally

I've spent some time exploring the great crater Copernicus. Very nicely illuminated tonight with it's complex interior terraces, central peaks and crenellated rim showing in great detail at up to 300x with my ED120 refractor.

There are patches of darker material on it's flanks of ejecta which are peppared with small craters. Must have been quite an impact around 800 million years ago when it was formed !

Apparently Copernicus was a strong candidate for the Apollo 20 mission but sadly that programme did not get past 17. To partially make up for that, in 2012 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took some simply stunning views of the crater including it's central peaks. Zoom into the final two hi-res images and the detail is simply astonishing 

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/675

 

 

 

Thanks for the link John, gave me goose bumps looking at the close ups!  I was observing with an 8inch f5 Helios and had some fabulous views, Sinus Iridium was stunning too with the 'cup handle' effect.