A quick trip down the terminator

[The Warthog]

After looking at Mars for about a half hour, I took a look at the Moon, which had gotten a bit lower in the sky than it had been earlier. The air was nice and steady, and the slight haziness which had interfered with my view of Mars didn`t seem to be an issue on the Moon.

I put my 4.3mm Antares in the scope, as the Nagler was fogged up, and started with the snowman, Arzachel, Alphonsus and Ptolemaeus. It`s a favorite feature to a lot of observers. Alphonsus has a small central peak with a very distinct, triangular shadow. The smaller but very sharp Allpetragius looks like a snowball taking the head off the snowman. A little southwest of Arzachel you can almost make out Rupes Recta (the Straight Wall) coming out of shadow. It is next to Thebit, which has a nice wall crater, Thebit A.

The snowman is a nice feature because it is a triple, one of the best, but one of many triples on the Moon. Just to the south of it is the slightly more obscure triple of Purbach, Regiomontanus and Walter, the first and last of which have many smaller craters in their floors. To the east of them is the triple of Aliacensis, Werner and Blanchinus. Blanchinus, with La Caille (pronounced La Caye) is a little washed out in this light .

To the south of all this, Maginus looks marvellous in this light, appearing to have scalloped edges, as the western wall lights up with the floor still in shadow. The next best feature to the south is Moretus, just emerging from the terminator.

Going north from the snowman, you encounter the curving line of Montes Appeninus, which marks the edge of Mare Imbrium. and furtther north you discover Archimedes, named after the man who discovered that if you get into a full bathtub, it spills over the edge. Between the crater and the Appeninus mountains are the Montes Archimedes. There are a few other mountain features like this on the Moon that I would have called forests if I had been looking at them through one of the telelscopes they were using when people started naming this stuff.

Nest to Archimedes are two interesting craters, Autolycus and Aristillus. If you continue past them you get to Eudoxus and Aristotle. Eudoxus and Aristotle seem to stand out a little more than you would expect at their present distance from the terminator, but they are not especially deep. Because fo their orientation and relative sizes of the two pairs, it is just possible to mistake the first for the second if you are in a hurry.

Next on the trip is the wonderful Plato. It is very old, and its floor is filled with lava, making it dark and flat. I can seldom resolve any detail on the floor of Plato, but I have occasionally seen hints of craterlets. It is on the north edge of Imbrium.

Ths last notable thing to the north is Goldschmidt, which is named after a jeweller from Warsaw.

There is more to see at this part of the lunation, but it`s cold and I don`t want to keep you out any longer. Go inside and have a cup of tea. There will be no more viewing this lunation. It`s going to snow until the end of February.

[Mark at Beaufort]

A very enjoyable lunar observing report Warthog. Last night I used my 6" frac and my Ethos EPs to basically observed the same features.

The atmosphere here was not steady and some of the features were going from sharp to soft and back again.

Mark