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by Jane Houston
Last night, September 18th was a gorgeous mooning night. The 8 day old waxing moon is the right time to view the Straight Wall, Birt A and B and Rima Birt, Tycho, and , and... All these were an easy find in my 6 inch F5 Schwaar Companion reflector, at 125X thru a Vixen Lanthanum eyeepiece. Two boy scout troops with about 30 boys and about 6 adults descended on the Fremont Peak Observatory after watching the sun set over the foggy Monterrey Peninsula 100 miles away. The scouts were having their flag ceremony when the sky behind them turned brilliant hues of red and orange. They all dashed to the overlook for a better view! The flag ceremony made special by the setting of our special star.
Once Dave North had completed his lunar programme (complete with the famous hereabouts 3-D spackle moon he and Akkana made - resplendent with anatomically correct lunar features) and all boys had had their fill of Straight Wall, Clavius, and Jupiter we had the place more or less to ourselves for the next 5 hours. First we sketched sunrise on Clavius, and saluted Russell Porter as his named crater was bathed in sunrise. One by one the interior craters appeared. Craterlets D, C, and N formed a trio of bright spots on the dark crater floor.
Akkana was poised, sketchpad in hand to watch the sun rise on Hesiodus thru her 80mm refractor. I was likewise situated about three feet away with the 6 inch reflector. Our companions were making the same observationss thru the 30 inch Challenger reflector in the observatory 20 feet away. We watched in awe as the tiny triangle of light navigated the crumbling walls of the small crater. It was a clear and windless night. It was pleasant sitting and sketching. That was my first Lunar Ray! I was really enjoying the light show!
I took a glance at some nearby craters in the same field of view as Hesiodus, but a little to the south. What do you think I saw? Two more rays were making an appearance! I rushed to my Rukl to see what the crater was called. The crater is unnamed, but if you look on Rukl 64, you'll see what I mean. My twin rays were in the teartrop shaped feature to the the south and between Craters Wurzelbauer and Gauricus. Between 36 and 38 S and 16 and 14 W. The two slivers of light made a nice companion to Hesiodus to the north. As the hours passed, my twin slivers widened and became chunky triangles much like the Hesiodus Ray nearby. Later still, they merged into a "W" or "M" shaped feature, a beautiful contrast to the dark of the crater floor. We watched the Moon set over Fremont Peak, first in the observatory through the big scope, then thru the 80MM and 6 inchers set up below, then again, when we moved the 6 incher up the grassy slope for a third and final moonset for the evening. Instant replay was never so good! After a few peeks at some big and distant objects, some galaxies far far away, we packed up. Good thing, because just then the fog that had stayed below in the valley, a fuzzy blanket of white covering all lights, from Soledad Prison to the nearby towns, all of a sudden rose.
In the course of 10 minutes we were totally fogged in. We said goodby to our speccial Fremont Peak, and our lone observing friend, set up nearby with a 6 inch AP Refractor, who was sswaiting for a morning view of Orion's M-42, and headed down the windy 11 mile road for home. Those rays were something I'll not forget soon!