Mons LaHire

[Nik271]

I had a brief clear spell at 7am this morning, grabbed the Skymax127 and set it up in 5 minutes outside. The last quarter moon was still high in the dark sky and I had pleasant 20 minutes exploring the terminator and both  polar highlands. It was very windy and the seeing was wobbly, I stayed at 125x with the 12mm BST EP.

In the south the pair of craters Longomontanus and Wilhelm were mostly in shadow except their rim and looked like dark lakes. Further south Bailly was on the limb, I could see smaller craters and hills on its floor. In the north Sinus Iridum and Mare Imbrium were splendid with many ridges visible. Montes Jura was very bright catching the sunlight. Pythagoras was showing its floor and central peak at the extreme north. One of the best views was of Mons LaHire in Mare Imbrium - it was casting a dramatic shadow. LaHire is 1.5km high, but the shadow must have been 20km long at least.  Afterwards I made this crop from the moon phase similation on https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ for the same time:

 

LaHire is the small peak near the centre. The crater in lower centre is Euler, it is 25km wide, almost as long as the shadow of LaHire.

Soon afterward clouds rolled back and now it's raining again. I'm glad I managed to observe the Moon, it has been some time.

Clear skies!

 

Nik

 

[Epick Crom]

Fantastic report Nik! Mons LaHire sure is a great mountain to observe. The moon is an endlessly fascinating object to observe.

[Voyager 3]

I can see 2 shadows Nik .. any idea which one is the lower one ? 

[Nik271]

2 hours ago, Voyager 3 said:

I can see 2 shadows Nik .. any idea which one is the lower one ? 

According to Wikipedia LaHire is 'arrowhead shaped':

 

it seems that the smaller shadow is cast by the 'point of the arrow' on the valley next to it and the peaks on the other side are cathing the light.

However in my observation I couldn't see two shadows just one continuous long one. This must be very time dependent - at these low sun angles even a few minutes may make a difference.