by Jane Houston Jones
On the drive home the fog cleared to reveal an awesome sky. It was nearly midnight when we got home but we set up our f/5 105mm Astro Physics Traveler on the back deck anyway. After telescope set-up, we set the alarm so we would awake at transit time, 3:43 a.m. Then we went to sleep. The alarm buzzed, and we staggered to the telescope, and saw the moon 65 degrees above the horizon. A few minutes later, the Traveler was outfitted with a Zeiss binoviewer, holding a pair of 10mm Zeiss Abbe Orthos plus AP barlow. This combo yielded a magnification of 180x. Views through the 4-inch aperture Traveler at this magnification were rock-steady. The seeing was superb!
The first feature that literally jumped out at us was Rupes Cauchy (Rulk 36). It appeared as a white gash in the lunar landscape. In contrast, Rima Cauchy appeared black. Two domes -- Omega Cauchy and Tau Cauchy -- were obvious, and we even spotted the tiny craterlet in Omega. It is interesting to compare this fault to Rupes Recta, which has the same bright appearance at sunset. We just don't get out and observe the moon at 4:00 a.m. very often.
We then worked our way west to Ritter and Sabine (Rulk 35). Above Rimae Hypatia (which we couldn't see) and crater Moltke (which we could see with its stark white halo) were the tiny craters named for the Apollo 11 astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong. We couldn't spot crater Collins between these two, but we could imagine where it was and also imagine where Apollo 11 is resting in Tranquility Base.
Heart-shaped Hypatia (Rukl 46) was our next target. It was bathed in sunlight and not as dramatic as its namesake.
The chain of craters which comprise Vallis Capella (Rukl 47) were dramatic. They sliced Capella in two. I think this was my favorite view of the night! About this time I read Steve Coe's Shallow Sky post about viewing the two Capellas, and went to the front deck to view Capella, the star, and Jupiter and Saturn while I was at it.
Moving down the terminator, I soon came to my next favorite view of the night. Gutenberg ( Rukl 48) is an amazing crater, and this morning it had an inky black puddle of shadow filling its floor and that of the crumpled companion, Gutenberg C. Nearby Messier and Messier A were in shadow.
It was almost 5:00 a.m. now, and we wanted to just ride the terminator for a little while. Hercules and Atlas (Rukl 14 and 15) caught my eye. The rimae on the floor of Atlas were visible and so was another striking feature that reminded me of the crater valley slicing through Capella. This feature looked like another chain of craters between and north of Atlas and Hercules. It is not really plotted on Rukl 6 or 7, but it is between Atlas and Keldysh. It shows a little better on Plate 3-15 in Dinsmore Alter's "Pictoral Guide to the Moon". Maybe it is just a shadow.
Well that was enough mooning for one morning. We packed up the Traveler, made sure the cats were in, and joined them in a little cat nap before daylight. We plan a repeat performance tonight. Baseball game, telescope setup before a few hours sleep, alarm, and mooning at transit time again, which is about 4:30 a.m. this morning, September 26. The skies look great now, wish us clear skies in a few hours!