Mare Crisium Well Placed, Great In BVs

[cloudsweeper]

4.35am, 102S frac ready, much fast-moving cloud, Moon (3 days past full) at about 33deg, west of south.  (Mars at about 42deg, a bit further east.)

x50/1.2deg of field - good view, not too bright, no CA.  I decided to concentrate on Mare Crisium, with the terminator passing through its centre, then at 4.50 it began to rain.  Packed everything away into the Dobhouse, looked out, and the rain cloud had passed, so I set it all up again (4.55).

x100/0.6deg of field (TV Radian) - sharp view, not too bright, a little unstable, purple fringing around the limb, but almost none along the terminator.  Crisium's prominent craters Picard, Greaves, Peirce, and Swift stood out, while the shallower and fainter Lick (touching Greaves to its south) and Yerkes were quite clear at the sea's western edge.  

The other clear feature was the ridge Dorsum Oppel following Crisium's north western edge, passing close to a craterlet and a small group of hills north of Yerkes.  All good at x150/0.41deg of field (TV DeLite).  Sharpness of detail fell off somewhat at x200.

I decided to compare the Cyclops view with a binoviewers one, at x100/0.6deg.  The fine detail described really stood out - a noticeably clearer view, with a sense of depth.  I didn't have long to enjoy it however, as Luna approached the tall trees in the west.

A pleasing session, and another great start to the day!

Doug.

 

[John]

Nice report Doug. I was doing just the same last night:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/361725-seas-on-two-worlds-lunar-and-martian-mare/