The first area of the moon I looked at included a collection of four targets from the Lunar 100. The first of these is L11, a very bright cater called Aristarchus that lies in the Oceanus Procellarum. The crater is considered to be the brightest large formation on the lunar surface, with an alebdo nearly double that of most lunar features. It was so bright that when I took the image shown below, I had to force the exposure down quite a lot to try and stop the crater over-exposing.
Next up is L22, the Aristarchus Plateau which is an uplifted region mantled with pyroclastics that lies next to Aristarchus. This elevated region contains a number of volcanic features, such as sinuous rilles. One of these rilles is also on the Lunar 100 List as L17 and is known as Schröter's Valley. It is actually the largest rille on the moon and starts at a 6km diameter crater before following a meandering path until it reaches a 1km high precipice at the edge of Oceanus Procellarum. An interesting fact about this rille is that it was the planned site for the cencelled Apollo 18 mission.
The final target in the area was L86, a rille system named the Prinz Rilles which are located near the crater Prinz. These rilles are on Oceanus Procellarum itself and not the Aristarchus Plateau. These rilles are sinuous in nature and extend for upto 80km with one of the main ones originating from a tiny crater known as Vera which sits just a couple of km from Prinz's rim. To be honest, this was one of the hardest targets to view as the rilles are quite small and the glare from nearby Aristarchus is rather distracting. However, I did manage it and they are also just about visible within the image I captured.
After this interesting collection of targets, I moved on to L36. This is the Grimaldi Basin, a large basin located near the western limb of the Moon. The rim of this crater has been so heavily worn and eroded that it forms a low, irregular ring of hills, ridges and peaks, rather than a typical crater rim. The floor is very flat, smooth and featureless with a rather low albedo that contrasts with the brighter surroundings making it rather easy to locate.
Next up on my tour of the moon was an area containing two targets with the first being L42, the Marius Hills which is a complex of volcanic domes and hills located in Oceanus Procellarum. These domes are located near the crater Marius and average approximately 200–500m in height. To be honest, I found these quite hard to spot as the Moon was lit so much that they were lacking contrast. However, I did spot manage to make out an almost bobbled texture to the surface where they were located. You can't see them very well on the image I took but the bobbly effect is there, or at least to my eyes it is. One nice addition to note is that if you look above Marius Crater you should be able to see the "U" shape of Marius Rille which is quite a nice sight.
Also within this area of the moon is L57, the Reiner Gamma which is a high albedo feature lieing to the west of Reiner crater. It has a distinctive swirling, concentric oval shape that appears to have been formed due to magnetic anomalies.
Finally, I finished the night with a look at L62, a Large volcanic dome known as Rümker. The mound has a diameter of 70km and climbs to a maximum elevetion of about 1100m. Low contrast means it isn't that prominent on the image but there is an obvious bulge visible in the center of the image I took.
No comments:
Post a Comment