After the conjunction set... the MOON!

by William B. Phelps


Oh, my... I hope some of you had the seeing we had tonight at Foothill College. It's been few and far between that I've seen views of old Luna like this!

After Venus and Jupiter set, the tv crews departed, and most of the public left, I swung up to the Moon. I quickly grabbed the eyepiece case, and kept swapping until I ran out of choices at 435x (15mm Panoptics in the bino viewer, with barlow at max power configuration). Oh, my!!! The rille and craters in Vallis Alpine, clearly seen in moments of steadiness. A ray of light from the gap in the wall of Birt caused apparently by Birt A, falling on the far side of Birt. A 1 km crater near one of the domes that Rima Birt passes thru. Lots and lots of tiny peaks catching the first rays of sunrise past the terminator. Hadley Rille wandering all over the place, as plain as anything. On and on it went... Thin high clouds seemed to reduce the contrast now and then, but could not diminish the details we were seeing...

Only the threat of moisture on the objective could get me to pack it in, as it did at around 9:30 pm. (By then there were droplets on the tube)

A lunatic's dream, for sure...