by Jane Houston Jones
The moon was absolutely stunning from the corners of 24th and Noe Streets in SF last night. Noe Valley sits in the fog shadow of Twin Peaks, a cool geologic duo in itself and well worth a visit in the daytime. One peak is red chert and the other basalt. So while a thick finger of fog was pushing its way up Geary Avenue, we were blessed with a clear and very steady sky in the bustling friendly neighborhood dotted with shops, restaurants and bookstores. We knew it was going to be a good night, when we pulled up to a fire hydrant, parked to unload the telescopes and a parking spot emerged directly in front of the hydrant. I called it good carma, John Dobson called it good parkma.
Our main targets were the large walled plain Clavius near the south pole of the moon. The gorgeous morning light spread over the floor of the 100 mile long walled plain. Little by little, new craterlets emerged as sunlight brightened the crater pocked floor of Clavius.
Copernicus looked similar to the picture in Rulk's Atlas of the Moon, chart 31, with its crater floor in shadow. I opened the Rukl Atlas to that page for the sidewalk strollers to observe. I placed the atlas on a newspaper rack, then later, on an outside table at the restaurant a few feet from my telescope.
Plato in the northern region of the moon was my other main target last night. "You mean that crater is about 50 miles across?", asked one viewer? "Wow!"
I enjoyed the Fra Mauro, Parry, Bonpland crater remains. And I noted to myself and to those in earshot that this is the area where Apollo 14 landed in May of 1971.
Our visitors included two teams of SFPD's finest, who actually parked their patrol cars and stood in line to look at the moon while chatting with the other moon gazers. Little Houston was in bed when his mommy drove by as we were setting up the telescopes. She went home and got him out of bed and brought him down to the corner so he could view the moon is his pajamas. It was definitely pajama weather last night. There was no wind and it was warm for San Francisco, unlike tonight, when a fierce onshore flow of air pushed fog and cold air over the city.
An even smaller boy of perhaps 6 was intimidated by the size of my 12.5 inch f/5.75 Strider. I pointed across the street where Mojo was aiming the small 6 inch f/5 Pierre Schwaar reflector, Red Dwarf, and the youngster eagerly crossed the street for a look through it. He didn't even need a ladder because Red Dwarf is a perfect kid sized telescope. Before I could say Mare Tranquillitatis, he was hopping up and down, pointing at my telescope from accross the street. Tugging his mom's arm, he dragged her back across the street for some looks through the big scope. He was glad to hear we'd be back on Halloween night!
On the other corner, John was using Stardust, my first telescope which I made in his telescope making class in 1988. Stardust is a 10 inch f/7.3 reflector. There were lots of other people who stopped by the three telescopes last night. And they all got some nice views of the moon, and not all of them were wearing pajamas.