Clear night on the moon - 16th April

Another clear night, but too many things to do. I was really hoping that the clouds wouldn't roll in, and I was lucky and in the clear when I finally got everything finished just before 10pm. So I trundled everything out and setup. Leveled, powered up, a quick solar system align on Saturn, and then used the goto to get to the moon, just to see what happened. After all it's not as if the moon is hard to find. Interestingly the goto put Gassendi into the centre of the FOV of the 5mm Ortho I use for alignment. I swapped to the 5mm Hyperion and x2 barlow. Having had this pop up so spectacularly in the eyepiece, and as I'd been planning to try a proper sketch instead of the usual crater spotting ones I've been doing, I figured this would be an ideal starting point. As I was using the white light camping lantern, which does away with the need for the ND96 filter, seeing the paper was easy. I'm not sure how easy this would be under red light. Anyway, after studying and sketching as I went for a little under an hour, here's the result.

Gassendi and the Mare Humorum


It was quite tricky getting it onto the computer as it wouldn't scan and ended up taking a snap with the camera, then some fiddling with levels to get the paper a more normal colour.

Seeing was ok, but has been better and I went onto some crater spotting. As I was already there, I started in the same area with Gassnedi and A & B. Then around the rim of Mare Humorum. Opposite Gassendi, using my more accurate Sketch, I found Dopplemayr and M, Vitello and Lee. Nearby I also found Puiseux, this was quite tricky as it's quite faint. There's a line/wall of some sort running through the Mare from Puiseux, but I can't find any reference to it. Near Gassendi, on the end of the opposite wall, is Agatharchides.

From here I went and found Ramsden, and after another of my poor little sketches in my notebook and checking after on VMA, I found Capuanus, Mercator and A, Campanus and A, Konig, Kies and A, Wolf T (I think), Dunthorne and Darney. From this area, I moved a little way to Hainzel, where after looking around and another poor sketch found Hainzel B, L, R, J, O and W, there's a lot of little craters linked around this area. Then Mee and B, E & F. Epimenides and B & F, and Clausius and B & F. Then as it was near anyway, the elongated scar that is Schiller with N, Rost, Bayer and A, C & E.

I then went and had a look at Clavius, and it's getting harder to pick out as the terminator marches on, but I could still see the tracery of the curve of smaller craters, decreasing in size and arching North, and I think I managed to pick Moretus out of the flatness too. I also saw Longomontanus and probably a few others, but due to the lack of contrast, it's much harder to pick out. Then onto Tycho, this stands out anyway, despite the drop in contrast.

I then hopped back to the Mare Nubium and Bulliadus fell under the eyepiece. I added it to my little sketch around Ramsden, and used this as a useful anchor point for VMA lookup later. Around Mare Nubium, I found Pitatus, Hesiodus and I think I also found Lubiniezky just to the southwest of Bulliadus, although these were all quite tricky due to the lack of contrast. Then I moved onto the divide between Mare Nubium and Mare Humorum and had a good long look for Hippalis and the rilles. This was really quite hard, as the seeing wasn't the best, I looked and looked, and then I guess I got a moment or two of good seeing, and could make out the delicate tracery of the three big rilles, phew.

Then back to near Gassendi and the other side of the wall, I found Herigonius and nearby Letronne. Then onto Lansberg and another quick sketch, netted me, the Montes Riphaeus at the end of which, in the direction of Lansberg is Euclides P. Around Lansberg I also found B, C and G. Expanding the sketch to include Copernicus and Keppler and the area in between, I found, Hortensius, Milichius, Rienhold, Kunowsky, Encke and Tobias Meyer with A & C. To the South of Copernicus I spotted the Montes Carpatus, not a difficult find really, it's quite a mountain chain in the middle of the flat areas. Moving on up South, looking around the Montes Apenninus and Montes Alpes area, I spotted Plato, then back to Archimedes nestled between them, and using Archimedes and Erosthenes as anchors it was time for another rough sketch. Which netted me, Euler, Lambert, Pytheus, Delisle, Diophantus, Brayley and B, and a couple of mountains, Mons Lahire and Mons Vinogradov.

Then into the Sinus Iridium, via taking a look at both capes, Heraclides and Laplace on the way in, another rough sketch got me, Bianchini, Sharp, Maupertius, Bouger and Foucault. Around here, I also saw Mons Gruithuisen. Then on up South past Plato and Mare Frigoris, I found Hershel, Phitlolaus, Fontenelle and Goldschmidt, another quick sketch here, found me, Scoresby M, Anazagoras and Barrow A.

As I was getting quite cold by now, I finished off with a view of Saturn. She was as pretty as ever. I'm not sure, but again I think perhaps I may have seen some banding, and I did see the planets shadow on the rear of the rings. I also think I saw three moons, Titan, Tethys and Rhea. I spend a good 15 minutes just staring at Saturn. Then packed up and went in.

It was only when I got back indoors and looked at the Lunar 100 list, I realised that over the past few nights, I've picked up a few more.

9th April - Mare Australe and Mare Smythii
10th April - Vallis Rheita
12th April - W Bond.

I was really pleased to have spotted those. A good week, my first proper attempt at sketching, and it looks as though I've got the idea across, another "impact" of craters (not sure what the collective noun for craters are, but impact works for me) and four for the Lunar 100, giving me 70.