Since all you good TAC folks decided to head out to Houge last night, but my own obligations and mild cold would not allow (regrettably), I did the next best thing in setting up in the back yard. The seeing was wonderful, supporting 300-400x in the C8 until the dew monster shut me down for good.

Of course I wandered around the Usual Suspects, since it was the first good look since forever (it seems like). The entire Triesnecker Rille complex showed itself easily, along with the spectacular Hyginus rilles, Bradley and Hadley rilles... they were all fat plums. It was also amazingly easy to see a good part of the central cut in the Alpine Valley.

Again (and more clearly than ever) I noted a curious "line" running almost directly north from near the base (Imbrium side) of Vallis Alpes toward Mare Frigoris. There is nothing charted there, or named, to my knowledge, but it certainly looks like a rille structure to me. In Rukl (page 4) there is some indication of a curious linear crater formation, but no comment or connection. In the Times Atlas, based on the Air Force charts, there is clearly an indication of such a structure, but no named confirmation. Anybody know if this rille has been positively identified and/or named?

My next "interesting" observation was, of all things, Stoffler (Rukl 65). To the first glance, it's just a flat, smooth crater with some interesting tonality. Like several other craters in the area (notably Orontius and Walter) it has dark "rays" or spray markings on the western side, more or less oriented in the direction of Tycho. I don't know if there's any particular relationship, but one cannot help but be suspicious.

After a while, though, I started to notice a bunch of little craters on the unnaturally smooth surface... I'd never noticed that before (there are three or four obvious small ones, but...) One after another they winked into view, as my eyes "integrated" more and more. Some would stay, others blink in and out... it was like hunting the faint stars in a distant open cluster, slowly fighting my way to the edge of the seeing... once again, the moon presented a new challenge in a familiar setting.

I also noted excellent tonality in Purbach and Regiomontanus (Rukl 55), and in particular found their complex shapes and intricate craterings fascinating in good seeing. Both seem to have very fractured walls with lots of runnels and mass wasting, leading to a remarkable play of light. Purbach has a curious structural anomaly in that a ridge runs across its middle, complete with a ghost crater and several smaller structures; I assume this is the result of two old craters formed at near concentricity, then beat to hell over the aeons.

Probably my favorite view of the evening was watching, bit by bit, sunrise over Alphonsus (Rukl 44). At first sight, it was nearly completely dark other than the rim, but it lit up over a surprisingly short time. At one point, the central peak looked like the gnomon of a sundial, with a perfect ray headed off at three o'clock...

All in all, a great start to the beginning of the moon season (the next five months being the best time for the average jane to take advantage of the elevation of the first quarter moon high in the sky...)