Telescopic Craters - 10 Days...
Davy:
Date: June 18, 2002
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 25mm Celestron, 10mm Celestron
Time: (no specific time listed. reports indicate late p.m.)
Comments: Continuing on, I explore through the terminator. Tiny, odd shaped Davey bordered by its' small and intense craterlets. The Apennine Mountains are also very beautiful, with their peaks and valleys so well displayed in shadow. And then I find myself back again... Back where I started from.
Back to Plato, where I belong.
Pitatus:
Date: April 28, 2004
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 17mm Sirius Plossl, 12.3mm ED Epic
Seeing: 4 7/10
Time: 9:30 p.m. ESDT
Comments: North of Tycho and fully exposed tonight is Crater Pitatus. Very shallow looking with wide walls that look like series of craters rim the edges. Actually? They do. Hesodonius accompanies it at one edge, while the other towards what appears to be dune-like features, are lettered C, G, and X, Y, Z. I do not see any rimae within Pitatus, but there is a peak that is slightly off center. Pitatus sits at the edge of Mare Nubium and there are some beautiful small craterlets in its' open expanse of grey seas, like Nicolette and Birt.
Featured craters from basic upper left toward lower right are from Longomontanus to Pitatus, the shallow ringed crater with the central peak on the edge of Mare Nubium.
Billy:
February 13, 2003
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm EST
Seeing: 8/10
Scope: 4.5 Celestron
Eypiece: 9mm Meade
2X barlow
Comments: Now, I don't have to draw you a roadmap to find Billy, do I? Just a bit south of due west, turn right at the terminator, and you'll find a lunar feature that NEVER reveals any detail. Crater Billy is accompanied by companion Hansteen (one that HAS features, oh my!) and is 30 miles in diameter with a bright ring and one of the most seriously dark floors of any lunar crater. This charcoal grey feature eats the light. It does not appear domed, nor does it appear deep.
Wanna' peek?
It's an usual feature that is easily caught at low power because Hansteen and Billy are so similar in size. But, ya' might want to sock the magnification on it just to enjoy!!
Fra Mauro:
Date: July 21, 2003
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 25mm Celestron, 10mm Celestron
Time: (no specific time listed. reports indicate early a.m.)
Comments: Eratosthenes, Copernicus, Fauth, Frau Mauro, Herschel, Ptolemy, Flammarion, Mostig, Lalande... They are my companions. The deep sky is eradicated by the bright light of the Moon, and the clouds hang upon the night like the tresses of a weeping woman's hair hangs across her face. The night is quiet.
And I am the vampyre.
Clavius Craterlets:
Date: June 19, 2002
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 25mm Celstron, 10mm Celstron
Time: (no specific time listed. reports indicate late p.m.)
Comments: So, I spent a bit of time watching watching the emerging walls of Klaproth and Casatus, on the terminator above Clavius. Clavius itself is a splendid, rich well to drink from... The interior pockmarked with many small craters, with Rutherford intruding on the edge. Gruemberger, Moretus, Short... The stability of the night made these smaller features, well... shall we say at bit more Simpelius to view?
Clavius at high power...
Hippalus:
May 1, 2004
Telescope: 4.5 Orion
Eyepiece: 25mm Orion
Time: aproximately 8:30 p.m. ESDT
Comments: Hippalus sits directly opposite the beautiful Gassendi on the south side of Mare Humorum. Even with as little magnification as the 25mm provides, Hippalus shows a low profile of a shallow crater with a break in its' brief walls to the west. Although I would have like to set more power on it, I can still see a couple of tiny craterlets along its' rim.
J. Herschel:
Date: January 24, 2001
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 25mm Celestron, 10mm Celestron
Time: (no specific time listed. reports indicate early evening.)
Comments: The Moon was where I wanted to go, and I just barely had it in focus when a prime feature stood out like no other. J. Herschel.
Yeah, Gassendi was great, and Schiller was definately highlighted well. Copernicus was over-exposed, and the ray system just smacked right out. My favourite area, the Sinus Iridum was well met... but oh my... none of them stood out like J. Herschel! The Moon has an allure of its' own, and perhaps I am the only one who looks into the eyepiece at any given time to see just one feature that stands out above the rest. It doesn't matter to me...
I just like lookin'....
Crater J. Herschel is featured in this still frame.
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