Rima Birt

[John]

I have had some lovely views of the Moon this evening through my newly acquired Revelation 8 dobsonian. Once the scope had cooled an amazing amount of detail was visable - tiny rilles, craters and domes that I had not been aware of before seemed to "pop" into view - it's great what a bit of aperture can do

The Straight Wall (Rupes Recta) was nicely on display in the Mare Nubium. I also spotted a thin rille that I have not seen before running roughly parallel with the wall - I looked it up and it is called Rima Birt and is 52 km long and about 1.5 km wide. It is supposed to be visible in 80mm scopes in very good seeing conditions but I don't recall having seen it before. It gets it's name fro the crater Birt nearby I think. It was really nice to see new details like this then researching them over a coffee back in the warmth !!.

John