Half moon and cloudy

[The Warthog]

I set up last night to look at the Moon, and as I hadn't used my scope for a month, and that in Pennsylvania, I had to completely set up the whole thing, which took a while. Once I was set up, I was going to go back inside for my ep kit, and the Moon had disappeared! While I was working, a bank of thick cloud had arrived from the south, pooching my observing for the night.

Tonight at suppertime the sky was clear, but by the time I set up the scope, cloud had rolled in again. However, it wasn't covering the Moon, and I went and got my eps and put the 24mm SWA in, for about 32x. I had a nice view, but the ep appeared smudged so I went inside for my lens pen and brushed off the glass inside and out, then looked again. Still smudged, so I looked towards the moon, and realized that although the Moon was clear of the apple tree when I sat up and looked at it, the scope was looking through the topmost branches. So, out came the pruning shears, and I removed the offending branches. The tree fought back, of course, pelting me with little green apples, but it was no match for me.

I went and looke through the scope. No Moon. I looked through the finder. No Moon. I looked at the Moon. No Moon. Damned clouds again. So I waited.

After a long while, the clouds parted enough to give me a good look at the surface most of the time, and I popped in my 7.5mm SWA for 100x, and used that the rest of the evening.

It turned out that because I was imperfectly polar aligned, the scope travelled very slowly north to south as I observed. This allowed me to put the scope on the northern part of the Moon, and watch as various features on the Moon came into view.

I started with my old friends Aristotle and Eudoxus, the first of these being a little larger, and very well defined, Aristotle on the southern fringe of Mare Frigoris, and Eudoxus between Frigoris and Serenitatis. I took time to see how many small craters on the floor of the two seas I could make out, and it was quite a few, some no bigger than 5km in diameter when the Moon was clear of cloud.

Moving south past Serenitatis you see Agrippa, a nicely defined crater about 40km in diameter, and a little farther on, just on the Terminator, Argelander and Airy (airy disks ring a bell?) both just over 30km in diameter.

Getting closer to the northern limb you see Maurolycus. The fact that the shadow of the wall of Maurolycus reaches only about a sixt of the way across the floor, even this early in the lunar morning, show how shallow these things really are, although Faraday and Stoffler to the west still are sunk in shadow, it won't last. I bet they're too shallow to even hold a decent conversation at a party.

Two craters close to the rim are Mutus and Manzinus. Just to the north of them is a neat arrangement of small craters that lookd almost like a half-circle. These craters are all related to Mutus, and probbly not more than 13km in diameter, but at 100x they make a nice little family.

On the well-illuminated part of the Moon, the trio of Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catherina, are still easy to see.They are a showpiece at any time.

Over towards Mare Crisium is an interesting little ray crater, with three distinct rays projecting some hundreds of km from it. If I'm not mistaken, this is Romer Named after one of the first calculators of the speed of light, or a tool we used to use in the Army for giving map references, I'm not sure which. I think it is Romer as VMA tells me that Romer is less than a billion years old, and it must be a young crater to have rays. I hope that logic works.

Next time, I'll take a map out with me and remember to look for Rimae and Dorsae, but this was a pretty good night for the first time in a month. Next week I'm going to a cottage in central Ontario where the skies are clear, and hope to see some faint fuzzies as well as the Moon. Oh, wait a minute! The Moon will be full, won't it? Damn! Foiled again.

[Talitha]

Thanks, WH.. i needed that.

The little rayed crater by Crisium is Proclus... Romer's the one up near Posidonius that has one end drawn out like a pouting lip. It always reminds me of a squooshed down candle rim.

[AztecastroMcJ]

great detailed report

as beginner i have really enjoyed views of moon thru my scope,

finding moon very illusive at min tho (needs to be at least 20degrees for me to get gud view)

checked on Heavens Above Site and notice will be in gud position around 6th-10th Aug

looking forward to viewing and maybe trying my new web cam out

cant wait

James

[mik]

Very nice detailed report WH, looks like you had a nice evening despite the battle with the apples.

Mick.