Lunar info wanted regarding crater "Pico"

[Andrew*]

I saw this crater in my 8" last night as I was distracted from viewing Plato (top left of the image), and popping out of the view during moments of exceptional seeing I saw the very tiny crater between Pico E and Pico D (the two small round ones lower left.

(Image courtesy of someone else)

I am desperate to know its size, because I'm sure it's the smallest, most difficult object I've seen on the moon. Interestingly, Pico F (the tiny one below D and E) was constantly visible. According to VMA, Pico F is 2 miles round and needs a 200mm reflector to resolve - the tiny one I'm enquiring about was more difficult still. I was lucky to have excellent seeing that night - otherwise it wouldn't have been possible. Also, I could only see this crater in my Carl Zeiss ortho (10mm Abbe-II with 2x barlow), and not with a Telescope House 5mm ortho.

Anyone know an excellent source for lunar info (better, in fact, than VMA expert), where I can find this crater?

Cheers

Andrew

[Ghost66]

try this site for a detailed moon map

www.lunarrepublic.com

[Dave Smith]

I have had a look in my Rukl Moon Atlas and that crater isn't named and so there are no details given but measuring it and using the map scale it seems about 2.5km. For comparison D is given as 9.1km.

There is no information in The Modern Moon by Charles Wood, MoonPhasePro shows that crater but no information.

IHTH

Dave

[Ben Ritchie]

Fairly sure I saw this one just now with the 12", 13mm Ethos and 2x barlow. F was an easy spot, and the mystery one was popping in and out of view. I sketched out what I was seeing and then went and checked Rukl, so think it's the same one.

The dob's not properly cooled down yet so i'll recheck in an hour or so. Interested to know info now i've seen it myself!

[Talitha]

Nice catch, Andrew!

Here's a zoomed crop of LAC chart 25 which identifies the small crater as Pico EA. The Clementine Atlas doesn't include the designation on the image page or the index, but the index lists Pico F as being 4km (2.48 miles), and judging from the LAC chart, EA looks about the same size as F. EDIT... on second thought, it looks a bit smaller.

Well done!

[Andrew*]

I knew I could rely on you, Carol! By the way, that's some chart you have there!

Well, it was definitely a tricky object and I was chuffed to have seen it. Interesting that though F and EA appear roughly the same size, EA is definitely more elusive. Perhaps it is due to proximity to Pico E...

But the fact that my Zeiss Abbe-II showed me an object an inferior eyepiece didn't is somewhat heartening!!

Andrew

[Andrew*]

By the way, that's some chart you have there!

Do you have the electronic version or the "hard copy"? Just found this which looks worth it, if it really offers that sort of detail

Andrew

[Talitha]

Nice little chart, eh? Don't buy copies, though.. they're right here.. on average, about 2000x1500 and 1.5 Mb each. There's other lunar stuff here, too.

If you liked the challenge of EA, try bagging crater Collins near the Apollo 11 site (Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are #90 on Chuck Wood's Lunar 100 list). The Clementine Atlas lists Collins as being 2km (1.2 miles) and I finally got it with the 8" SCT during the early hours of 4 Sept 2004.. needed Antoniadi II steadiness to do it, what a little stinker, lol.

[Andrew*]

Very nice - thanks for the links.

Don't know if I could manage a crater half the size, especially as I "don't do" mornings, but I can always try:D

Andrew