Clouds and poor seeing foiled two consecutive nights' opportunities to view the region of Mare Orientale, so at about 0800 UT 12 June 1998, I took my 55 mm Vixen fluorite refractor into my yard in Palo Alto, California, to see what remained of the favorable libration. The answer was, not much, but I noted with interest that at 110x (8 mm Brandon, 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow) both Lacus Autumni and Lacus Veris were easy albedo features, near the limb, not far past Grimaldi. The area seemed less confusing then, with the terminator two or three days past the area, than when I had looked at it once before, with the sun closer to its horizon. No doubt the oblique view of long shadows was confusing things during the earlier view.

Elsewhere on the Moon, the wrinkle ridge systems in Mare Fecunditatis were prominent. I believe I identified Dorsa Geikie and Dorsa Mawson. I rounded out the night with some double star work -- I split the wide pair of nu Sco, but I could not detect any trace of separation of Antares, and I could not detect the companion of Polaris. I have split Polaris with this instrument before; I suspect that sky glow from the Moon was limiting on this night