Ready For A Bit Of Moon Action

[cloudsweeper]

She's there now, but a bit pale.  I've had to set up near the house since the Moon will be behind trees quite soon.  Anyway, I'm ready a little action with the large 127 frac, and a stool to sit on for comfort.

Doug.

[Stu]

Have fun Doug. Looks good already in the Telementor, might have to pop the Vixen out for a while. Enjoy!

[cloudsweeper]

Turned into a great session - comfortably perched on a stool, with light clothing in the warm, still conditions.

8.25 - Moon (2 days before first quarter) still pale.

8.40 - lots of thin cloud, but Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina, and the smaller Maedler were good and clear.

8.55 - changed the 20mm TV Plossl for the 100deg Myriad - doubled the FOV, but got the Ring of Fire!

9.00 - detail a bit clearer.

9.10 - went up from x60 to x120, thin cloud had passed, much more detail, very nice.  Cyrillus showed two central peaks and its pear-shaped craterlet.

9.15 - tried x240 - the third, smaller peak in Cyrillus became evident, but the view was a bit unstable, so I dropped to x200 with the TV Radian.  Very nice view indeed.  Saw much detail in the central peaks of Theophilus, and the dark craterlet at its NW rim was framed by the pale rim detail and resembled an eye.

9.25 - more unstable now at x200 - tried x300 for the sake of it - awful!

9.40 - moved north to Rima Ariadaeus, west of M.Tranquillitatis - a straight, fine, dark crack, right on the terminator - easy to miss.  It ended near the craterlet with the same name, and its adjoining, smaller partner.

9.50 - sky still light, Moon bright, but approaching those dratted trees.  Lovely detail at x179 - sharp and clear.

10.00 - Moon at about 35deg, south of west - session coming a close due to the trees.  Still no stars out.  Took a look at the heavily cratered southern highlands.  Sacrobosco stood out (SW of Catharina) with a triangle of three craterlets, one larger than the other two, so resembling a startled face!

Most enjoyable - very relaxing and comfortable, much detail, but no glare, and some hitherto unseen lunar features.

Thanks for reading.

Doug.

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by cloudsweeper