DEC 13TH - SUNSET AT THEOPHILLUS, Cyrillus AND CATHERINA, ** ANOTHER PIC ADDED **

[paulastro]

Last evening I looked at the Virtual Moon Atlas in case should it should be clear later to see what was near the terminator.  Delighted to see Theophillus, Cyrillus and Catherina were due to be right on the terminator, less delighted when I checked the weather to see it was forecast to be cloudy.  Just in case I looked out at 10.30pm and I couldn't see even where the Moon was.  Decided to have a last check at 11.30pm before turning it, and shocked to see there were large clear patches near the Moon.  Set up with the SW80ED on the AZ5 with the Olympus E-M5 Mk11 attached.

I was out by 11.45 ready to roll.  Conditions not great but it did improve later before it clouded up completely by 1.15 am.  I had one of the best sunsets I have ever seen over this trio of craters and watched the shadows slowly starting to envelop them, truly outstanding.  I imagined standing on one of the slivers of the illuminated rim of Thiphillus and looking West, what a panorama it would be - and no one there to witness it.  Managed to take a few photos and spent the rest of the time with the binoviewers giving x143, some jaw dropping views, much better than my snaps of course.

Below is a single frame I took at 00.11 am, 1/400 second at 400 asa.  The crop, taken from the same frame, shows The Theophillus trio of craters and going South, through the Altai Scarp, past Rothman and Lindanau and their dark interiors and further South to Maurolycus and Brocias.

Luckily I escaped the cloud and fog early on as it was below me, thanks to being at an altitude of around 825 feet.

           

     

Below is a second crop to the South of the first one, which it overlaps, and to approximately the same scale.

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by paulastro

[Mr Spock]

Very nice. It's a wonderful region to look at.

[steppenwolf]

Lovely and sharp - one of my favourite regions of the Moon.

[paulastro]

Now edited to extend the enlarged section to the South limb.

[paulastro]

Many thanks for your kind comments folks