Hadley Rille looking fantastic - 20th April 2020

[Stu]

As per the title, Hadley Rille is very nicely illuminated tonight, I’m seeing the whole length of it clearly in my 8” f8. Seeing is pretty decent.

[John]

Excellent illumination for the rille and the Apennines tonight

Further south, the crater Alpetragius just N of the Straight Wall is really well illuminated as well. It has that huge, egg-like, central mountain / bulge in it's centre. Very striking !

 

 

[johninderby]

Arrrgh!!! 🤬 another cloudy night here but at least someone is getting some good viewing tonight. 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, John said:

Excellent illumination for the rille and the Apennines tonight

Further south, the crater Alpetragius just N of the Straight Wall is really well illuminated as well. It has that huge, egg-like, central mountain / bulge in it's centre. Very striking !

 

 

Yes, I caught that one too John, quite an unusual looking one! Lots of nice features well illuminated tonight. I’ve knocked off a few more Lunar 100 targets, and failed on a few more! Some of my best lunar views for a long time tonight. Exactly the sort of observing I bought my 8” f8 for 😀

[Chris]

Too tired to go out myself but glad you guys got some great views. We're really having a decent run at the moment! I'm trying to remember when it was last this good? : )

[Stu]

18 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Too tired to go out myself but glad you guys got some great views. We're really having a decent run at the moment! I'm trying to remember when it was last this good? : )

Very true Chris. I’m almost glad things have softened off a bit here now so I can go to bed! 5.30am alarm! 😴😴

[John]

I've packed in as well now. Too much cloud cover for other targets. Great stuff on the moon though

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Yes, I caught that one too John, quite an unusual looking one! Lots of nice features well illuminated tonight. I’ve knocked off a few more Lunar 100 targets, and failed on a few more! Some of my best lunar views for a long time tonight. Exactly the sort of observing I bought my 8” f8 for 😀

Very similar story here. Headed out after seeing this heads up. Took a little while for the dob to cool but then things were great. Worked through some Lunar 100 targets. Highlights were Hyginus Rille and Triesnecker Rilles. I love straight wall and was amazed by all the small craters I could see around it. I was going back and forth between the Pentax XW 5mm and Vixen HR 3.4mm eyepiece wise. Excellent evening rounded off by taking a couple of snaps with the DSLR through the dob. Thanks for the heads up @Stu

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Lockie said:

I'm trying to remember when it was last this good? : )

I reckon it was around the time of first lockdown Chris. I remember having a couple of months of wonderful skies soon after that started. I must admit I thought it would just carry on like that forever 🤣🤣, or at least until the planes started up again.

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Very similar story here. Headed out after seeing this heads up. Took a little while for the dob to cool but then things were great. Worked through some Lunar 100 targets. Highlights were Hyginus Rille and Triesnecker Rilles. I love straight wall and was amazed by all the small craters I could see around it. I was going back and forth between the Pentax XW 5mm and Vixen HR 3.4mm eyepiece wise. Excellent evening rounded off by taking a couple of snaps with the DSLR through the dob. Thanks for the heads up @Stu

Great stuff Neil, glad you got out. Did you catch Hadley Rille? Hyginus and Treisnecker did look very good too. There’s an amazing amount of detail in Hyginus when the seeing steadies.

[Littleguy80]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Great stuff Neil, glad you got out. Did you catch Hadley Rille? Hyginus and Treisnecker did look very good too. There’s an amazing amount of detail in Hyginus when the seeing steadies.

Thanks Stu. Sure did, it looked great  The Rilles are probably the feature I feel most drawn on the Moon. Not sure why.

Funnily enough, I was thinking last night that the skies are like they were at the beginning of lockdown last year. The main advantage being that we’re now allowed to head out to dark sites on the Moonless nights. 

[Stu]

43 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

Thanks Stu. Sure did, it looked great  The Rilles are probably the feature I feel most drawn on the Moon. Not sure why.

Funnily enough, I was thinking last night that the skies are like they were at the beginning of lockdown last year. The main advantage being that we’re now allowed to head out to dark sites on the Moonless nights. 

Yes, I agree about the skies being similar to the first lockdown. Let’s hope we have the same few months of clear skies.... then we can sleep over the summer 🤣😴

[John]

I do find my lunar observing has been made much more interesting by the "21st Century Atlas of the Moon" by Charles Wood and Maurice Collins

What I love about that book is that it invites the amateur observer to ask questions and to share in trying work out what might have been going on to create the features we see.

Whereas many astronomy books will state something like "this feature is caused by factors X and Y" the 12st Century Atlas is open about the perplexities that face lunar scientists in many cases - why are there dark patches in this crater but not in the one next door ?, why has rille x taken a sharp deviation at this point ?, scientists are divided on whether such and such a feature is of volcanic or impact origin, or maybe both ?, is it a co-incidence that this feature lies in an area of some of the strongest magnetic anomolies ?

Once you start thinking this way I think you start observing (rather than just looking perhaps ?) questioning what you are seeing and then go seeking other examples of your own

I've been trying this approach on non-lunar observing as well over the past year or so and often find that it does add a further dimension to familiar targets as well as new ones

It's working for me anyway  

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by John

[Littleguy80]

Agree with that, John. I was using the same Atlas last night. It’s the only paper Atlas I use when observing. SkySafari covers everything I need for non Lunar observing. I find that it highlights lots of great features that I could easily miss otherwise. There’s a good mix of easy and challenging targets in there. 

[Peter_D]

14 hours ago, John said:

Excellent illumination for the rille and the Apennines tonight

Further south, the crater Alpetragius just N of the Straight Wall is really well illuminated as well. It has that huge, egg-like, central mountain / bulge in it's centre. Very striking !

 

 

Thanks for highlighting Alpetragius to me - I inadvertently captured it last night when imaging Rupes Recta:

 

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Peter_D said:

Thanks for highlighting Alpetragius to me - I inadvertently captured it last night when imaging Rupes Recta:

 

Excellent images Peter, it’s certainly a strange looking crater!

Rima Birt looked very clear last night, captured in your shot too.

[John]

Hadley Rille is looking lovely tonight as well

[Stu]

13 minutes ago, John said:

Hadley Rille is looking lovely tonight as well

Nice one John. Won’t be getting the 8” out tonight, but may have a quick look with the Heritage 150p. Not optimistic of getting it though.

[maw lod qan]

That is an area I really enjoy looking at.

I can only image how it would have had to look gazing out the lunar lander's window as they grew closer to landing!