Waxing Gibbous Moon

Bill Drelling

I set up my 8" LX200GPS in my folks backyard tonight and showed my 78 year old father a few of the sky's brighter objects:

M42
Mars
Moon
NGC457
M45
Double Cluster

Turns out that M45 is right next to the moon, so we couldn't see too many stars. He enjoyed looking at everything.

The moon was most interesting though. For the first time I noticed a dark line on the surface. According to my Field Guide the object is in Mare Nubium. It is listed as "Rupes Recta." It was a clear and well defined dark line. Must be a ridge or something similar.

Saturn also looks interesting. It is fairly low in the sky to the east right now, but doesn't look too bad. The gap in the rings is still easy to see, but the rings have definately gotten much flatter since the last time I looked at the planet. If you have not viewed it yet this season, I'd highly recommned it.

Anyway, that's about it for tonight.

Regards,

Bill Drelling, Observing on Location in Orange County, CA.