Central Rille Visible

[mikeDnight]

The central rille travelling the alpine valley is currently visible as a bright line. It is closer to the southern wall than it is to the north. I'm using a binoviewer at around 128X and its still daylight, so contrast should improve as the night darkens. Take a careful look making sure you're in sharp focus. 1/6/20 

[Peter Drew]

Good news Mike, I'm planning to give it a go with the 8.5" refractor later tonight.  Unfortunately I don't have your keen eyesight.        😧 

[mikeDnight]

25 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Good news Mike, I'm planning to give it a go with the 8.5" refractor later tonight.  Unfortunately I don't have your keen eyesight.        😧 

The 8.5" is a seriously nice scope. Im sure it wont disappoint if the seeing is steady. And especially if you're using both eyes! 

[John]

Great observing Mike. I need a 12 inch aperture to see that feature and only then when the seeing is very good and then 250x - 300x magification. You must have superbly acute vision

 

[mikeDnight]

Thanks John!  A late astronomer friend of mine used to say that I had "eyes like a sewer rat."  I think he meant it as a complement! I'm not that certain that sewer rat's have particularly good eyesight?   I'm not sure about my eyesight but I do have a reasonably good observing site. Having said that, the seeing went off dramatically tonight after I'd posted the heads up. The Moon became so wobbly it looked like I was observing a reflection on a lake, so I packed up sooner than I normally would.  I hope others managed to catch a glimpse despite it being quite an illusive feature. Much depends on the quality of seeing.

I didn't sketch anything tonight, but I have attached a sketch (prism view), that I made last month, which gives an idea of the central rille's position relative to the south wall as seen in my scope. It's a feature which comes and goes in the undulating atmosphere. 

[Peter Drew]

Hello again Mike.  Pleased to hear that the seeing had gone off.  Why?, because when I started my session at 11 pm it was as much as I could do to see the Alpine Valley never mind the rille!  I'm glad it was the seeing and not the telescope.  I did have a quick look at Vega and that looked like a ball of fuzz despite being nearly overhead. 

[paulastro]

Thanks for the heads up for this Mike, I did see it as I told you on the phone.  Rather than writing it all out again here, this is a link to a post I've just put on the Observing Lunar forum where I have included a few notes about it.  Thanks again.