Hesiodus ray spotted

[Nyctimene]

Was out last evening with the 18" "grab-and-go" Obsession for checking some minor technical improvements with a look at Luna. The seeing was rather bad, allowing only magnifications of 128x.To my surprise and completely unexpected, I spotted close to the terminator the crater ray phenomenon "Hesiodus ray" at an advanced stage. A gap in the western crater wall of adjacent Pitatus was casting a light cone on the still mostly dark floor of Hesiodus, broadening to the west, with a light point at it's tip, resembling an exclamation mark. I've seen this light phenomenon only once many years ago (it's lasting only a few hours), and was very pleased to get the view again. I was even able to capture it with the smartphone - my first astro picture since decades! You can spot it quite well - look at the crater Pitatus, located north (above) Mare Nubium (with the Straight Wall); adjacent to it's western (right) crater wall the light cone on Hesiodus' floor can be seen.

Has anyone else observed the Hesiodus ray yesterday?

Attached a useful tool for such phenomena:

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/rlo/rays/rays.htm

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[markse68]

Nice catch and something to keep an eye out for next time round. Thanks for the link too- could come in very useful