Moon Woke Me Up!

[moondog]

Too cloudy last night for me, but turned over in bed at 3.30 am this morning and moonshine was streaming through the window.

So I got carefully out of bed so as not to wake Mrs MD and went into the spare bedroom next door.

Could see the moon pretty low in the South and Jupiter a bit higher further to the West. Clouds rolling in from the West meant I didn't have time to get changed, go outside and set up the TAL.

So out with the 70mm F12.5 maksutov spotting scope(threw away the crappy zoom EP that came with it and replaced with a 25mm plossl) and throw open the window. Yes, I know, not to be recommended. But I was rewarded with an excellent view of Jupiter and her satellites. The fainter Callisto far East of Jupiter then Ganymede and the smaller Io. Europa was to the West. Could just see the North and South Equatorial Belts.( 2x barlow added).

Turning to the moon I looked for any interesting features, first up - Atlas & Hercules craters in the NW. Didn't have the camera so I sketched what I saw. Turned to the SW by Gutenberg crater - this time because it looked like a monkey's face to me and I also sketched this - quickly now as the clouds were rolling in.

I crept back to bed about 4.00 am. Probably the fastest observing I've done in a while.

I'll work up the sketches sometime and if they look OK post them - see if anyone else can see the face.

MD

[Albireo380]

Good quick observing post. Cloudy here all night. You are a lucky (moon)dog, waking up like that.

Look forward to seeing post of drawings.

Tom

[Naz]

Good one MD, grab every opportunity, having a grab and go to hand is great

naz

[moondog]

I've been an idiot!

Two things I forgot.

1) I could have used the mobile phone's camera instead of sketching the moon

2) I'm not used to observing through a maksutov and so in my post NW should be NE & SW - SE

Will try to post sketches asap

MD

[moondog]

Well here are my sketches of what I saw earlier this morning.

See if you can spot the monkey face!

Probably if I'd have been able to get the TAL out it would not shown it as a monkey face.

MD

[lunator]

MD

Good sketches.

I understand about the Newt/Mak orientation.

I took me a while to get used to the OMC140 view as I am most used to my Newt view.

[radioactive]

well done MD and very good sketching too I had a fair look at jupiter myself last night until the moon got above the rooftops it glared me off to bed then

[The Warthog]

Very nice work! The Monkey face is obvious in your first sketch. I'd never heard of it before.

[Albireo380]

Good sketch MD. I never noticed the monkey face around Gutenberg before. I will look for it next time I am out and the moon is up.

Tom

[Mick.G.]

Nice report MD.

Your sketch was very good,would like to see more!

Mick.

[moondog]

Thanks for the comments.

I'd never tried sketching before but it was the only thing I could do to record what I saw.

I seem to be able to sketch faster than A) fixing the compact digital to the digiscope trying to centre the image in the LCD screen C) taking 20 or 30 shots D) downloading the images and then E) playing with them in Registax etc.

Sketching seems so old fashioned to me but I think I will give it another go.

Cheers

MD

[OXO]

Top Stuff Md!

Well done.

James :moon: