Tuesday, March 10, 1998 (hottest day of 1998 for Monterey County)

Thanks to David's post I decided to haul the scope out in spite of the threat of high clouds. I appreciate having targets ahead of time. Often I read reports the day after and think darn, I wish I'd known to look for that.

Seeing was marginal with a breeze running down the valley. 210x seemed about the best power for the conditions. As near as I could tell, the terminator was following the 66 degree line illustrated in Rukl.

Oenopides showed sections of its far rim hovering in the shadow. Babage was well illuminated with tantalizing detail shimmering through the atmosphere. Babage A was a pool of black. Behind Babage, Pythagoras showed as a bright ring in the blackness with breaks in the far rim. A brilliant white peak protruded from its center. Anaximander was fully illuminated and showed some granular detail in the floor. J. Herschel was washed out, so I didn't spend much time on it. The floor of Carpenter was in shadow.

Mons Rumker was well away from the terminator and only parts of it showed good contrast in the texture. Most of Briggs was in shadow with just a little of the near rim showing. Seleucus showed a little more than Briggs, but it's far rim was also lost from view.

At the southern tip of Hevelius there was an interesting rille showing. It consisted of two arcs and looked like archery bow or a child's drawing of a bird in flight. An other rille at right angles to it seemed to add a tail, giving it the impression of a flying serpent. Rukl shows some unidentified rilles in the area (split between 28 & 39) but they don't have the double arc pattern that I saw.

Damoiseau was showing good detail. Damoiseau D appeared as a black teardrop outlined in white, and dripping north on the rim of Damoiseau A. Grimaldi was in shadow, except for the near wall.

Rimae Sirsalis showed most clearly to the south of Sirsalis F down to Crugen A. The surface seemed darker here and contrasted with the rille. Other sections of the rille would come in and out of sight with the seeing.

Schickard was showing off its craterlettes, but I was getting chilled and called it a night after matching a few of them with Rukl's illustrations.