First Proper Lunar Session

[dannybgoode]

I have always had a fascination with the moon (not uncommon I'm sure) and of course I've looked at it through binoculars and telescopes many times but until last night I've never spent a good couple of hours studying particular features and really spent time studying the terminator for any particular moon phase.  Aware also I was getting frustrated trying to nail imaging and had neglected any visual obs I decided to give it a go.

So, armed with the rather good Moon Globe app, a Meade 10" SCT and a variety of eyepieces and of course a nice clear evening and a good bright moon I set up early and waited eagerly for it to clear a tree at the back of the garden and then got to work.

My main aims were to a) identify a good number of features and just start learning the lunar surface in general and b) look for features that I will come back to in the future and study more closely.  I'll post a full list of targets I successfully  identified at the end of my report but for now I will just give an overview of my meanderings and highlight any features that I found particularly interesting.

First job was to get orientated and locate exactly where I was using Moon Globe.  As I mentioned it's a really nice app and you can set the moon to either be a traditional globe or to match the current phase and age as it will be seen through the scope.  In this mode it automatically labels the main features you will see on the terminator as well as other major features visible on the moons surface.  You can also flip N/S and E/W so having tried to mentally flip everything around I decided my brain wasn't nearly capable enough to do this I orientated the view on Moon Globe to match that of the eyepiece and I was away,

Starting at Gassendi I started off with the sequence Gassendi, Merenius, Leibig, Cavendish, Henry, Henry Freres etc.  It took me a while to really nail this in my head and then I promptly forgot it all but It was a nice start.  Trying to verify all the features by looking for other features nearby got me really concentrating on pulling out the detail and looking closely at view in the eyepiece.   I had also decided on my 12mm BST as my primary eyepiece.  In the Meade this gave a magnification of 200x.  I would have preferred a 10mm to be honest by I don't have one - a situation I have to rectify.

With orientation sorted and my eye 'in' I decided to wonder slowly south toward Schickard and really enjoyed the detail of the overlapping craters.  It was here that I found the first feature that I will definitely be revisiting and that is the 3 craters, Wargentin (with the bonus this is a lunar 100 target), Nasmyth and Phocylides.  Wargentin really standing out against the others as appearing as a completely flat tableau juxtaposed against the cliffs of the edges of Phocylides which looked spectacular right up on the terminator.

I spent bit of time just identifying various craters etc and noting them down before heading North and it was here I stumbled into a bit of trouble as I could definitively identify where I was and it was at this point I realised just how hard I was concentrating and how sucked in to it all I had become.  So I centred back on Gassendi and worked North more slowly so as to keep a tab on where I was.  I then spotted what I think must be my favourite crater on the moon - Billy.  Partly because it is a nice distinct crater and of some visual interest but mainly because I met my wife in a club when her sister dragged me across to their table and introduced me as Billy (as in 'no mates' as I was down the club on my own).  He is also a good reference point for perhaps the part of the 12 day terminator I found most interesting and that is Crater Siralis, Rimae Siralis and Rimae Darwin.  I could imagine scrambling over the cliffs and diving into craters and the sun's lit the area just perfectly.  A real sight and I could see why people spend so much scope time studying the terminator at various phases and could sense it would never get old.

Working further North I found myself getting drawn East as well having spotted the contrasting craters of grey Herodotus and the brilliant white of Aristarchus and then as my eye settled I began to notice perhaps my favourite feature of the night Vallis Schroteri and the surrounding area.  Again, as with the cliffs of Rimae Darwin my imagination took over and I found myself exploring the great rift as it tore through lunar surface.  It is a fairly subtle feature but the detail just kept resolving and I was lost in the scene.  Again, a quick check off a few more features and I carried on North.

Here I took in the mighty Herschel, Babbage ad Pythagoras with the latter looking particularly spectacular sat as it was right on the terminator.  Some of the cliffs a brilliant white and others various shades of darkness and all giving a serious sense of detail.  The central peak too was really set off well.   One feature I really wanted to find was Mons Rumker so from Babbage I worked out where I needed to go and found it - another subtle but very interesting feature and one that I would have like to chuck a bit more magnification at and certainly one to put on the list of targets that I will spend a lot more time on in the future.

By now I was getting tired and was beginning to flag mentally so I headed back to where I had started with Gassendi and more specifically the area that looked like stacked coves in a beach, that being Damoiseau.  I spent a good ten minutes again just taking in the detail and just letting it resolve as much as possible.  A real favourite and again somewhere I will be revisiting many more times in the future.

I decided to end the night with some nice widefield views so dug out my 2" Skywatcher SWA 32mm and my 2" 24mm Maxvision, both of which are tack sharp and give gloriously contrasty, widefield views and spend some a few minutes taking it all in.  It was at this point I spotted Plato and remembered I hadn't ticked Montes / Vallis Alpes off the 100 list so popped the 12mm back in just for a positive ID before putting the 24mm in for a final view.

By now the clouds were gathering, the scope was dewing up and I was getting tired but overall I was delighted with the night's viewing and I am a confirmed lunatic I think and will be spending many more hours at the eyepiece studying that terminator.  I think though for the next session I will unbox the TMB and give the Vixen Planetary 2.4mm a run out and really try and dig right down to the finer detail.

Full list of targets identified and a handful of dirty phone held to the eyepiece photos:

Gassendi 

Mersenius 

Leibig 

Cavendish

Henry

Henry Freres 

Vieta 

Fourier

Drebbel

Schickard

Lehmann 

Nasmyth 

Phocylides

Wargentin

Noggerath

Rost 

Segner 

Zucchius

Bettinus

Kircher

Schiller

Bayer 

Lacus timoris 

Hainzul 

Capuanus

Cichus

Billy

Hansteen

Darwin

Rimae Darwin

Di Vico

Rimae Grimaldi

Damoiseau 

Reiner

Marius

Rima Suess

Kepler

Enke 

Aristarchus 

Herodotus

Schiaperelli

Seleucus 

Vallis Schroteri 

Prinz 

Angstrom

Dorsa Argand 

Rimae Prinz 

Montes Harbinger

Rima Artsimochiv

Krieger 

Van Biesbroeck

Ruth

Rocco

Rimae Aristarchus

Rupes Toscanelli

Toscanelli

Plato

Herschel 

Pythagoras

Babbage

Carpenter

Sharp

Mairan

Louville

Mons Rumker 

Oenopides

Markov

Sinus Roris 

Montes Recti

Montes Teneriffe 

Sinus Iridium

Harding

Montes Alpes

Vallis Alpes

Mare Humorum

[Stu]

A cracking, and pretty mammoth session Danny! Thanks for taking the time to right it up, an interesting read!

[johnfosteruk]

Outstanding report Danny, first of many I hope

Pythagoras did give spectacular views last night.