Rupes and Rima Cauchy - Lunar 48

[Nyctimene]

Short  unplanned "ordinary" moon observation this morning (03.50 - 04.30 CEST) with the 5.1" f/5 Heritage Flextube. (Was lucky enough to witness the whole totality of the eclipse of the 27th, and to share the telescopic views with other interested people (along with views of Saturn and Mars); a nice celestial present for my 66th birthday btw.) This morning, with average seeing, Messier/A showed very plastically close to the terminator. Dorsa Cato, very distinct as well, led me to Taruntius. This crater (56 km; L 31) revealed several concentric structures on it's floor, rilles and mountains. To the NW, framing the 12 km crater Cauchy, the Cauchy fault (Rupes Cauchy) could be made out easily in it's almost full length, starting near V Cauchy and extending (120 km) to the end near Sinas H and J. ( I missed the two pancake-shaped domes S of the fault, as I discovered later when studying the 21st century Atlas of the Moon). The fault is similar to the more famous "Straight Wall" in Mare Nubium. The Cauchy rille (Rima C.), almost parallel to the fault,  was clearly fainter and seen best in it's NW part. Encouraged, I tried to spot the fainter Rimae Secchi, but after 15 minutes of acute searching, I gave up. The Heritage, used with the 8-24 Seben zoom and the Baader 2,25x Barlow, showed between mags of 130 - 183x once again it's qualities, giving very crisp contours of the lunar structures( along with the pleasures of easy setup, handling and tracking). What a capable scope!

Thanks for reading.

Stephan

[cloudsweeper]

Good account of an enjoyable session, Stephan!

Doug.

Auch - beste Wunsche zum Geburtstag!  (Mods - it's OK, just birthday wishes!  ?)