Telescopic Craters - 4 Days...
Picard:
February 5, 2003
Time: 7:50-8:30 pm EST
Seeing: 5.5 8/10
Scope: 4.5 Celestron Refractor
Eyepiece: 12.3mm Epic ED
Comments: Pickard is a small, fairly featureless crater that appears east of Lavinium Promentorium. In the smooth floor of Crisium, it looks like a bright-lipped orafice with unfathomable depth. Research notes show it to be sixteen miles in width and the crater rim to be 7,600 feet tall.
Furnerius:
February 5, 2003
Time: 7:50-8:30 pm EST
Seeing: 5.5 8/10
Scope: 4.5 Celestron reflector
Eyepiece: 12.3mm ED Epic
Comments: Boy, do I ever wish I could have seen Furnerius yesterday! OK, not that there's anything "wrong" with it right now... But I bet the details would have been much better with more shadow on it.
Right now, Furnerius is fully lighted. Elongated, it has one very serious central crater. Additional bright "spots" toward the southern edge of the interior may indicate the presence of smaller craters. The interior rima has no shadow whatsoever and appears as nothing more than a bright streak. Saving grace is two decently highlighted craters to the west (near Stevinus) identified as C and D.
This one might be more interesting to catch in the
waning phase and report again.
Date: February 15, 2001
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepieces: 25mm Celestron, 10mm Celestron
Time: (no specific time given. reports indicate early evening.)
Tonight's fascination crater? Furnerius... Just walked right out of the eyepiece and smacked me! Fantastic central peak... perhaps peaks? Interior ridges... Just splendid!
Petavius Wall:
February 5, 2003
Time: 7:40-8:30 pm EST
Seeing: 5.5 8/10
Scope: Celestron 4.5 reflector
Eyepiece: 12.3mm ED Epic
Comments: Actually I was pretty astounded by Petavius Wall... or Rimae. It was a lunar feature that caught my eye the moment I saw it, but didn't understand exactly what it was. Unlike the appearance of the "Straight Wall", Petavius Wall is dark. It runs from the northern crater edge into the central peaks, then breaks and runs toward the southwest. What you see looks like a long, dark runnel...
An unusual feature to say the least!
Messier/Messier A:
Date: May 6, 2004
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepiece: 17mm Sirius Plossl
Time: 3:00 a.m. ESDT
There is one more crater observation I need to make to complete my Lunar Certificate studies, so I set the old Celestron outside the garage door and leveled it out in hopes the crater I needed would be visible this morning. As luck would have it? (most of mine is rotten... but one in awhile... ;) Right dead near the terminator and caught forever in the frozen sea of Mare Fecundatitis are the cute little pair of dark orafices, Messier and to the west of it, Messier A. The seeing was not spectacular because there were some racing clouds, but it was easily to pick them out with just the 17mm. They are nothing exciting, because they are small... But it is cool to know that I have conquered the last of the list. Now all I need is the skies at the right time to see the "old moon/new moon arms" thing...
Proclus:
Date: September 13, 2003
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepiece: 25mm Celestron
Time: (no specific time given. reports indicate early evening.)
Comments: Mare Crisium was absolutely breathtaking. The Lavinium and Olivium Promentoriums were razor sharp. The punctuations of Pierce and Pickard intensely dimensional. Proclus, Tisserand, Macrobius, Paulus Somni, DaVinci...
Fabricus:
February 5, 2003
Time: 7:50-8:30 pm EST
Seeing: 5.5 8/10
Telescope: 4.5 Celestron
Eyepiece: 12.3mm ED Epic
Comments: Crater Fabricus was observed while riding on the terminator. Although the entire crater was not yet disclosed, it still puts on a good show with the interior peaks being much more pronounced with the shadows!
The eastern wall is high with an interior step that runs along the crater floor. The interior peak is actually a ridge that ends to the north with a crater that has eroded or been broken at it's southwest corner. The nearby presence of Metius makes for a double ringed delight!
A nice look inside of Crater Fabricus, featured in this frame. Small craters Steinheil and Watt sit above it.
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