Excellent night for the Arago domes

[Nik271]

I've been trying to complete the Lunar 100 (https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/the-lunar-100/) and one of the features that I was missing was the Arago domes. They are only 300 meters high volcanic domes near the crater Arago in the Sea of Tranquility, so only visible when close to the terminator.

Last night the illumination was perfect and after a rain shower the clouds cleared around 8pm. I set up my Skymax 127 and pointed it at the Moon with a 12mm BST EP. Sure enough the domes are very prominent next to the Arago crater. The seeing was not great and the 12mm EP was already a bit too much but I spent 20 minutes scanning the areas near the terminator. Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina were the main attraction further south, whilte in the north I enjoyed a good view of Dorsa Smirnov and Posidonius crater. Beyond them to the north was Lacus Mortis with the crater Burg. Despite the poor seeing I could see some of the rilles in this basin, especially those oriented north south due to the shadows they were casting on their flloors.

The moon libration was favourable for features on the easter limb: I could see well into Mare Humboldtianum, Mare Marginis and Mare Smythii and even parts of Mare Australe on the south eastern limb. So overall pretty good session for lunar observing for me

Clear skies!

 

 

[paulastro]

A great write up of your observations Nik, thanks for posting.  🙂.

[Alkaid]

Very nice report Nik, good reading. I must have a go at these domes.

[Mr Spock]

Nice report. It wasn't clear here but I must look for those next time round.

[Nik271]

This area is definitely worth revisting aroung the 6-th day old Moon. Actually I forgot to look for another interesting feature nearby - the submerged crater Lamont.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamont_(lunar_crater)

It was in fact labelled on my map but I thought it referred to an actual crater. Another reason to return to it again for a careful study.