by Akkana Peck
Brent Hutto wrote:
Tonight was the first look through my 6" f/8 Newt at our new house.
Glad to have you back! I've missed your postings.
A quick check of Rukl #36 identified the offending hairline as the well-known Rupes Cauchy. Rima Cauchy was also apparent but
I also got a good look at Rupes Cauchy that night, and a glimpse (though not as good) of Rima Cauchy. It's always a good night when I can pick out both of the Cauchy Hyperbolas.
David North wrote:
We've been having fun with a 4.5-inch and a binoviewer; the resultant images are startling -- sharp and bad-seeing resistant
I figure everybody is shaking their heads at this point, and that's okay ... I didn't believe it until I saw it, either. But really, a good 4.5" on a solid mount (in this case, a GP) with a binoviewer makes a wonderful moon scope.
Ak also noticed a very interesting monster berm in Nectaris that was right on the terminator... pretty weird. Does show up in Rukl but I'd never noticed it before. It's probably pretty transitory, lasting only while the light is perfect.
It extends from the crater Beaumont but seems to have no name, so I've taken the liberty of dubbing it Dorsa Beaumont. More striking was the bright white "W" pattern next to it, extending far out into the blackness past the terminator -- some work afterward comparing my sketch to the charts showed that this was the beginnings of sunrise on the rims of Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina. Sketch at http://www.shallowsky.com/images/sketch/beaumont.jpg
> Very good detail in Atlas tonight,
It has interesting radial structures in its outer wall, which were showing very well on Monday night: http://www.shallowsky.com/images/sketch/atlas.jpg
Another lovely area on Tuesday night was the Taurus mountains, the Apollo 17 landing site. A large, smooth rumker-like hump caught my eye, and a "string of pearls" extending out into the terminator held my interest. I imagined astronauts standing there in darkness (yes, I know they weren't there before sunrise, but as long as we're using imagination), watching the first hints of light shine from the tops of the peaks on either side of their lander, with a half-earth shining brightly high over their heads, as I watched their sunrise from my telescope.
My view is at http://www.shallowsky.com/images/sketch/apollo17L.jpg; I wish I had a good sketch of their view!
