Hadley Rille in two scopes - 22nd March 2021

[Stu]

I’ve posted elsewhere about cleaning the mirror on my club’s 12” scope in anticipation of some limited get togethers soon. With the Moon looking so nice tonight, I thought it rude not to have a quick session on it. It turned into a somewhat longer session as I was getting some tremendous views. The seeing was variable, but at times excellent.

This won’t be a long report as I need to head bedwards, but certainly Hadley Rille was the star of the show tonight, if only because it’s not one I see very often. At times I was able to follow it along almost its entire length and the detail was lovely. I only lost it after the featured called Durin’s Bridge in the labelled image, being unable to follow it around the base of the hill.

In the interests of comparison, I popped the 8” f8 out a bit later and tried with that. Similar focal length (1600mm vs 1520mm) and using a barlowed Leica Zoom in each giving over x300 in each scope. The f8 actually stood up very well, giving similar levels of detail and being a little more stable in the periods of variable seeing.

Somewhat surprisingly I got only the vaguest hints of Plato Craterlets, perhaps just not the right illumination for them, and I only managed a short section of the Alpine Rille and even that was a push (imagination? 🤣)

As mentioned by @John, Rupus Recta stood out beautifully and I also visited Deslandres and the crater chains in his post. Thanks for that John 👍

Plenty more to see obviously, but an honourable mention to Messier/Messier A which I always enjoy, and finally Clavius which looked spectacular close to the terminator and with craters in sharp relief.

Good to be out there after what seems like ages. I even managed a view and image of the nova.

Image credits for the first three are the Lunar Quickmap app. The last two of the nova are to a promising youngster called Stu 🤣

 

[John]

Great report Stu

 

[Roy Challen]

Great report Stu, thanks.

[Nik271]

Lovely report, Stu! The seeing was  great last night, wasn't it. Misty but very still. I also spent a long time watching the Moon. I'm quite fond of the Hadley area, it looks so much like a dry river. And my seeing is rarely good enough to see it well. Not so last night, in fact I believe I even got occasional glimpses of the central rille in Vallis Alpes with my 7 inch Mak! Hope to try to confirm that tonight again if it stays so good.

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Lovely report, Stu! The seeing was  great last night, wasn't it. Misty but very still. I also spent a long time watching the Moon. I'm quite fond of the Hadley area, it looks so much like a dry river. And my seeing is rarely good enough to see it well. Not so last night, in fact I believe I even got occasional glimpses of the central rille in Vallis Alpes with my 7 inch Mak! Hope to try to confirm that tonight again if it stays so good.

Thanks. Yes, it was very good. I had no more than a glimpse of the Alpine Rille, or rather a short section of it. Have managed my best views with a 4” apo a couple of times, believe it or not!

[Nik271]

17 hours ago, Stu said:

Thanks. Yes, it was very good. I had no more than a glimpse of the Alpine Rille, or rather a short section of it. Have managed my best views with a 4” apo a couple of times, believe it or not!

I tried again last night but no sign of the rille this time. Plato and Copernicus were fantastic! This time I could see a couple of the Plato craterlets, they seem to be sensitive to the angle of the sun.

[Stu]

34 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

I tried again last night but no sign of the rille this time. Plato and Copernicus were fantastic! This time I could see a couple of the Plato craterlets, they seem to be sensitive to the angle of the sun.

Exactly the same experience here Nik. Couldn’t see the Rille, but saw a few  craterlets as proper craterlets for the first time really. I’ve only ever seen the as bright spots so it’s great to properly see them finally. Seeing wasn’t as good last night but when it settled they were very clear.

[John]

It's great when the illumination allows the craterlets to show as actual pits with tiny ramparts

You can see the "big 4" generally under more direct illumination as white spots but the smaller ones are very hard to spot that way. A bit of shadow is very helpful with those. Good guide to them in this CN post from David Knisely:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/34841-guide-to-plato-craterlets/?p=450105

 

[Highburymark]

Good stuff Stu! Hadley Rille has always been a favourite Moon feature after watching Apollo 15 on TV all those years ago. Need good seeing to get a clear view with my 4” - really need a bigger scope for any detail. There’s a wonderful video on You Tube called ‘Flying down to Hadley Rille’ which shows the final 3-4 minutes of Apollo 15’s descent, with the Rille very clear near the landing site. And of course many spectacular images later of astronauts exploring the Rille itself.

[paulastro]

Fabulous report Stu.  Those pics remind me of the view through my 102ED  Tecnosky 😁.

[John]

I'm no imager (really !) but I did actually manage to snap a bit of the Hadley Rille using my ancient mobile phone over the eyepiece with my 12 inch dob last year. It's not much to look at but I was quite pleased with it. I've got a better phone now so maybe I should have another go ?:

Edited March 26, 2021 by John

[Saganite]

Excellent Stu.

Over the three evenings that I have been out this week I have had some lovely views of the Hadley Rille, always a pleasure, as is the Montes Apeninus

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, John said:

I'm no imager (really !) but I did actually manage to snap a bit of the Hadley Rille using my ancient mobile phone over the eyepiece with my 12 inch dob last year. It's not much to look at but I was quite pleased with it. I've got a better phone now so maybe I should have another go ?:

Great job John 👍👍

I managed to find a shot of it in a FaceBook Livestream which I did to my group the other night. Visually much nicer of course but good to catch anyway.