by Jane Houston Jones
The moon was higher in the sky and the seeing was even better than the previous morning. Instead of the 10mmm Zeiss Abbes, we plunked a pair of 6mm ZAOs into the binoviewer. This, plus the AP Barcon barlow gave us a magnification of 305X. Not bad for a 4-inch refractor!
The views were again rock steady. But we had to put our eyeballs right next to the eyepieces, which can be a little uncomfortable. We both had to take off our glasses to observe, then put them on to look at the Rukl atlas, then off again to look at the moon some more. Oh, well! Age happens!
Posidonius (Rukl 14) was our first target. Rimae Posidonius was criss crossing the crater floor. The circular rille on the crater floor circling the eastern crater wall was especially lovely. The adjacent crater Chacornac is also lined with rilles, and they were visible as well. Arago (Rukl 35) is near Ritter and Sabine in western Mare Tranquillatis. North and west of it are two great lunar domes Arago Alpha and Beta. The system of wrinkle ridges, most notably the spidery Lamont feature were subtle but easy to see last night. We had better luck with the Apollo astronauts, and were able to spot tiny Collins in between Aldrin and Armstrong tonight.
From here, I moved north to the eastern part of Mare Serenitatis. Plinius (Rukl 24) was just amazing. I made a rough sketch, and it looked to me like many small (like maybe 10) small craterlets around the central peak, and a gash of shadow on the northwest crater wall slope. Maybe it was my agitated imagination, none of the photos show this kind of feature. That's what it looked like to me anyway. The Serpentine Ridge - you may call it someting else but not me - and Dorsa Lister were prominent - and just awesome to look at. Bessel was a showcase crater.
Hypatia (Rukl 46) was more dramatic tonight than last night. Shadows filled the inner eastern wall, and the sunken crater to the south caught a glancing shadow blow from the sun.
Since we got a later start this morning we were rewarded with a new and awesome sight. Saturn was visible from our back deck, having recently transited, which means recently visible over the roof, meaning visible from the back deck where the Traveler was set up. :-) At 305x at 5:45 a.m. this morning we were just amazed at the detail the little Traveler gave. I guess this deserves a whole report and I don't have a Saturn chart handy to explain what we saw. Why is it that there is no Saturn nomenclature chart on ALPO, or other easily searched website that names the rings and surface features when you want one? The rings looked three-dimensional and the detail was just amazing. AlLmost mind-blowing.
I could go on, but I've run out of typing time. Each time I look at the moon, I see new features. Each time I see new features, I sketch them. Then I look on Rulk, and on the various websites. I want to know about the geology I see. I want to be able to spend an hour at the eyepiece looking at one tiny feature, and a day researching the geology I saw in that hour. Who has the time? I'm sure many of you feel the same way. I want to grow old looking at and understanding the moon!