Beauty Of Schickard On The Terminator

[cloudsweeper]

7.00am Tuesday - only things visible were a waning crescent Moon, high, S of E, and Venus some way below it.   ED80 Apo on Skytee II went into action.  Aristarchus, Herodotus, and the Schroter Valley were on the terminator, NW.  A fine spectacle.  But again on the terminator to the SW were Schickard, Phocylides/Nasmyth, and Wargentin.

Schickard is a fine impact crater which I haven't paid much attention to.  Large and smooth-floored, it is twice the size of the popular Plato, with less well-defined walls.  There was only a thin shadow on its SW wall, and the many craterlets of various sizes within it were a joy to observe.  I went up to x192, but the view was sharpest at x120/160.

After 30 minutes, the thin cloud was becoming more widespread, and the sky was lightening anyway.

Yet another great start to a day!

Doug.  

[Nik271]

Nice report, Doug!

I was observing at the same time and also had good views of the Moon. Did you spot a massive crater on the south west limb, with very uneven floor and a small crater inside? I think this is  crater Bailly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailly_(crater) I checked it up later and it turns out that it's the largest crater on nearside, 300km wide, bigger than Grimaldi and Clavius. And one of the oldest.

There is always something new to see on the Moon...🌙

Nikolay

[cloudsweeper]

Thanks Nikolay.  No, I haven't studied Bailly yet - as you say, there is so much to see!

I spent most of the time with Schickard, comparing it with the fine Plato.  Others points I noted were that Schickard's walls are more worn, and because of its position, it is more noticeably elongated (foreshortened) than Plato.  You will have seen that effect on Bailly too!

Clear skies!

Doug.

 

[Nik271]

15 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Thanks Nikolay.  No, I haven't studied Bailly yet - as you say, there is so much to see!

I spent most of the time with Schickard, comparing it with the fine Plato.  Others points I noted were that Schickard's walls are more worn, and because of its position, it is more noticeably elongated (foreshortened) than Plato.  You will have seen that effect on Bailly too!

Clear skies!

Doug.

 

 

I like those craters which were flooded with magma like Schickard and Plato, the dark colour really stands out. Judging by the number of craterlets Schickard must be considerably older than Plato. And of course some of the mares are actually huge fllooded craters. I recently realised that Mare Imbrium is one such, Plato and  Sinus Iridum are one rim and the whole of Montes Appenninus is the other.

Now there is no Moon for a few days, time for DSO!

Clear skies,

Nikolay

[maw lod qan]

9 hours ago, Nik271 said:

Nice report, Doug!

There is always something new to see on the Moon...🌙

Nikolay

This is so true. With the march of the terminator across its face, every night has something amazing to catch your eye(piece)!