Delights Of Southern Highlands

[cloudsweeper]

After using the very large AR 127L yesterday evening, I went for a complete change with the ED80 - a peashooter by comparison.  Set up at 6.00pm, with the Moon high, east of south, one day before 1st quarter.  After much to-ing and fro-ing, I settled on the southern highlands around Stofler with its distinctive dark southern craterlet.  Faraday overlaps it, and that in turn has two overlapping smaller craters to its south.  Walther lay above these, right on the terminator, with a dark floor and central white spot.  Its  western edge was just about defined, projecting into the void beyond.

Finished after about three hours on and off.  

Very enjoyable - a different target area, and putting another 'scope to use giving a different viewing experience.  

Doug.

[mikeDnight]

That's a pretty nice pea shooter Doug.  It was a spectacular terminator last night with so much to choose from. I too spent quite some time in the southern uplands with my 100mm refractor, but I found myself repeatedly going back to the north.  The crater Bond, which is north of Mare Frigoris really grabbed my attention because of it being so highly detailed. I studied that crater for at least half an hour, and it just seemed to get better as the night went on. Then Frigoris itself contained some interesting features. On its southern shore is a rille that follows the shore line. This led me on a mystery tour that must have lasted two hours, at the end of which I'd traced 16 of the finest rilles that weave their way through the mountain sized boulder strewn region between Frigoris and the Imbrium basin. Another rille edges the shore of Imbrium and the web of fine rilles between Frigoris and Imbrium link the two seas together like a canal net-work. Vallis Alps cuts through the mountains and the easiest rille can be seen crossing the valley width wise about half way along its length. Lunar maps are woefully inadequate, and even orbiter images rarely ever show the same level of detail because of the high Sun.  I can't understand why many avoid the Moon. To me its the finest object in the sky.

Edited May 30, 2020 by mikeDnight

[paulastro]

So, 'like a canal net-work'  eh Mike.  Your getting very Lowellian-like in your old age.  And all this with a Mars opposition coming up in October.  What's next Mike, Martian canals?  🙂

[cloudsweeper]

Yes Mike @mikeDnight - the ED80 is a rather fine peashooter!  Quality instrument, wide views, very easy to use, smooth focuser, no CA (although that doesn't really bother me).  It also makes a good guidescope along with the 8SE on the Skytee II.

The only issue I have with it is the way the dovetail is fixed at a certain position, so when I use it on the AZ4 (as y'day), the RDF is very low.  Rotating the focuser and diagonal, even reversing the bar, don't change it of course.  I might consider drilling a couple of new holes.  So it's best used on the Skytee or the Celestron GoTo.

As for the Moon, I totally agree with you - fantastic object, giving much enjoyment, in great abundance!

Doug.

[paulastro]

Mike, I noticed a crater which was impressively filled with detail when I was observing last night, but at the time I couldn't recall what it was called.   I didn't spend so much time as you did on it as I was concentrating on other features. When I read your description I looked at a single frame I had taken of the whole Moon, and it was Bond W which you observed.  I've cropped it and added it below.  It's a very large mag from my original single frame so the pic is decidedly low-res, but it gives an inkling of the detail you were observing.  It stuck in my mind because there was so much detail in it visible in my SW 120ED - I wish I'd gone back to it for a longer look in retrospect.  I've also added  the  frame from which it was cropped.

 

       

[JeremyS]

I thought we were talking about single malts for a moment 🙂

 

[mikeDnight]

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I thought we were talking about single malts for a moment 🙂

 

It took me a while to get that one Jeremy. I caught up eventually! 😄

Edited May 30, 2020 by mikeDnight