Apollo 15 Pallus putredinis

[Radman40]

Hi everyone.  Here is my offering.  The Apollo missions really do being meaning to the word 'awesome'. What they managed to achieve with 1970s technology is just incredible.  I love looking at the landing sites and finding them makes an interesting challenge; the moon phase, weather, seeing and not being knackered from work are all important factors that contribute to success.

I have often wondered what we amateur astronomers could see from earth using our various telescopes that the astronauts were able to see with their own eyes whilst walking on the moon.  I have done a bit of research using the various NASA websites and have been able to identify some features you can see with an amateur telescope, in my case a 10 inch Newtonian.  The Apollo 15 landing site is great for this.  It is surrounded by some big mountains such as the 14000 foot Mons Hadley and the Hadley Rille is an interesting feature. All these can be seen in the montage using the arrows.

The thing I have learned from undertaking this project is that the 'seeing' is everything in lunar imaging. It the seeing is poor you haven't got a hope.

It has been a really great project.....like walking on the moon in my back garden.

[Ruud]

That's a great contribution, Radman. It would make a nice wall poster!

[Paul M]

I agree, worth of a place on the wall.

[maw lod qan]

Fabulous! Everything Apollo amazes me and yes Apollo 15 landed in an incredible area.

I've often wondered how terribly disappointing it must have been to have been an astronaut on those last missions which were canceled. 

[MilwaukeeLion]

Terrific image, work and presentation!

[Steve Clay]

13 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

Fabulous! Everything Apollo amazes me and yes Apollo 15 landed in an incredible area.

I've often wondered how terribly disappointing it must have been to have been an astronaut on those last missions which were canceled. 

Imagine how gutted James Lovell must have felt when the Apollo 13 mission never landed. Especially as he had been circumlunar in Apollo 8.