Lunar observing companion

[Stu]

I spent some time this evening cutting back the laurel hedge in my observing area and getting it properly sorted. It is much better now, much more space and more comfortable to position my seat around the scope.

I was mainly using the Mewlon 210 with binoviewers tonight, and had some really wonderful views.

The Jura mountains looked spectacular, as did Copernicus. Rimae Hippalus were showing very clearly, looking like three curved claw marks across the surface.

Helped by some prompting from @PeterW I caught the domes near Milichius, and that encouraged me to find the Hortensius domes, and finally Kies Pi Dome which was tricky but I found it after referencing an image off the web.

I found Copernicus H, and then also spent some time trying to identify other Copernicus craterlets, getting up to F before calling it a day.

Checking other Lunar 100 features best on day 9 (looking at day 10 seemed less effective for some reason), I saw the Imbrium lava flows at number 98. Referencing @Doc’s very useful notes, I identified the areas mentioned, although it would be great to have an image to cross reference against to verify I was in the right place.
 

I tried for Lambert H but couldn’t convince myself I was seeing it, pretty sure I was looking at two other smaller circular features so will have to come back to this one, I assume it is very critical in terms of lighting so will just try again at different times around this phase.

Three or four Plato craterlets came my way too which was a good addition to the haul.

To finish up the session, M57 looked very good considering the brightness of the moon, and M13 was resolving very well deep into the core, although no propeller was visible to me. Darker skies perhaps.

Finally, and the reason for the title, after much rustling in the leaves my lovely little hedgehog joined me at the scope, hoping for a look too no doubt. Lovely to see and finished off a very enjoyable evening.

[PeterW]

Kies pi was good the day before. Those Plato craterlet still evade me...!

havent seen any hedgehogs found my way in many years, look after him!

 

peter

[Stu]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Kies pi was good the day before. Those Plato craterlet still evade me...!

havent seen any hedgehogs found my way in many years, look after him!

 

peter

Yes, need to work on identifying the best phase for these targets.

This is the first time in years that I’ve seen hedgehogs in the garden which is good news if they are returning. There seem to be a pair, so hopefully nesting somewhere. Not sure whether to feed or not, may put a shelter for them somewhere to hibernate in.

[niallk]

Nice report Stu, I was trying for Plato craterlets too - with limited success in a non cooled scope 😂

That's a lovely little visitor you had - hedgehogs are enchanting creatures.

[John]

Nice report Stu, and spiky friend

I didn't observe last night but I did see quite a few Plato craterlets the night before last. I think I counted 8 with the 12 inch dob.

Illumination when they show as pits with tiny ramparts is the most helpful. It's harder to spot more than "the big four" under more direct illumination, when they appear as bright spots on the dark floor of Plato.

 

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, John said:

Nice report Stu, and spiky friend

I didn't observe last night but I did see quite a few Plato craterlets the night before last. I think I counted 8 with the 12 inch dob.

Illumination when they show as pits with tiny ramparts is the most helpful. It's harder to spot more than "the big four" under more direct illumination, when they appear as bright spots on the dark floor of Plato.

 

Thanks John.

Last night they appeared bright so they were not so easy to spot.

[wookie1965]

Great report Stu I have never looked at the moon so closely but you make it sound a lot more interesting.

[Stu]

11 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Great report Stu I have never looked at the moon so closely but you make it sound a lot more interesting.

Well worth doing it Paul, fascinating and so much detail visible. One of our members had only really looked at the Moon at relatively low power previously, then I did a few Facebook Live streams of high power views and it has opened his eyes to just what can be seen, and how rewarding it is.

[Kyle Allen]

Nice report Stu. It’s been a pleasure observing the Moon the last few nights. It makes up for the lack of Astro darkness! I’ve always found it to be a bit overwhelming to observe, there’s just so much detail to be seen, but having a specific lunar feature to track down really helps. Some of the reports and suggestions from this forum have been really helpful 😀

[chiltonstar]

11 hours ago, John said:

 

Illumination when they show as pits with tiny ramparts is the most helpful. It's harder to spot more than "the big four" under more direct illumination, when they appear as bright spots on the dark floor of Plato.

 

Good point John. Interestingly, I've found that when they appear visually as bright spots (eg last night), they still image as pits although less defined than when the contrast is higher. The image shows 5+ pits, but I could only see 4 or 5 whitish patches.

Chris

[Stu]

I found them a little more obvious last night than the previous night for some reason. Seeing was similar so I guess I was illumination.

Any idea in best phase for seeing as dark pits, 9 days ish?

[chiltonstar]

50 minutes ago, Stu said:

I found them a little more obvious last night than the previous night for some reason. Seeing was similar so I guess I was illumination.

Any idea in best phase for seeing as dark pits, 9 days ish?

This is Monday evening at 23:00 - the bright part is about 50% of the pits (leading to them appearing as whitish blotches if the seeing isn't 100++%. I think the day before, Sunday evening, would have given the best view IMO?? I'm not sure exactly what number of days that would have been.

Chris

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by chiltonstar

[Stu]

46 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

This is Monday evening at 23:00 - the bright part is about 50% of the pits (leading to them appearing as whitish blotches if the seeing isn't 100++%. I think the day before, Sunday evening, would have given the best view IMO?? I'm not sure exactly what number of days that would have been.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris, that’s very helpful.

Sunday would have been 9.3 days old at 11pm, and Monday was 10.4 days old at the same time. Will keep and eye out next time around!

[PeterW]

Was pleasantly surprised last night when testing out different 5-7mm ep options and went over to Plato and managed to get see some fleeting white dots (when I could flick the floaters away from the centre of my field of view)! 
knowing where to look for some domes/rilles etc is good, but there’s always more subtle and small stuff to see.

Peter

[chiltonstar]

3 hours ago, PeterW said:

Was pleasantly surprised last night when testing out different 5-7mm ep options and went over to Plato and managed to get see some fleeting white dots (when I could flick the floaters away from the centre of my field of view)! 
knowing where to look for some domes/rilles etc is good, but there’s always more subtle and small stuff to see.

Peter

Floaters ........ I think mine came with the bus pass!

Chris

[Stu]

34 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

Floaters ........ I think mine came with the bus pass!

Chris

I must have taken early retirement according to my floaters!!  I didn’t mention them in my Tak vs Vixen report but confess they were a pain! I normally binoview at those powers in a 4” but wanted to keep everything as fair as possible; surprisingly enough I only have one Baader Mark IV binoviewer!! 🤣

[mikeDnight]

9 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

This is Monday evening at 23:00 - the bright part is about 50% of the pits (leading to them appearing as whitish blotches if the seeing isn't 100++%. I think the day before, Sunday evening, would have given the best view IMO?? I'm not sure exactly what number of days that would have been.

Chris

 

You've nicely captured the central rille in the Alpine Valley as it appeared visually Chris. 

[chiltonstar]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

You've nicely captured the central rille in the Alpine Valley as it appeared visually Chris. 

Not my best image of the area Mike - I was looking through a heat plume above my neighbours' house and the image was shimmering a bit.

Chris