2005-12-11
| Location: | Billingborough (South Lincolnshire, UK) |
| From: | 2005-12-11 19:50 UT |
| To: | 2005-12-11 20:48 UT |
| Equipment: |
Meade 10x50 Binoculars
|
| Temperature: | 4.6°C |
| Humidity: | 82% |
| Notes: |
First reasonably clear night for quite a while. But, as seems to be happening lately, a bright Moon (in this case a day or so past 1st ¼) meant that deep-sky work was pretty much out of the window. Because of this I decided to carry on with my long-term project to get to know the Moon again using just a binocular and a lunar map. There did appear to be some thin, high-level cloud kicking about but at the start of the session none was obscuring the Moon. |
Moon
| From: | 2005-12-11 19:50 UT |
| To: | 2005-12-11 20:48 UT |
|
The most striking feature when I started observing was the terminator running just west of Montes Jura, on the edge of Sinus Iridum. Next to stand out really well was what appeared to be two peaks, on the night-side of the terminator, but catching the Sun. Checking my chart it would appear that what I was seeing was Mons Gruithuisen Gamma and Mons Gruithvisen Delta. Given how small these features seem to be (I read a figure of about 12 miles by 12 miles) I'm left wondering if I identified them correctly, but given the stark contrast of the peaks when compared to the darkness of the night-side of the Moon I suppose it's possible that I've got it right. I could see no other named peaks on my chart in the correct location. Just to the north of the above, and into the day-side, I could clearly see a crater which, while shown on my chart, didn't have a name given (which seemed odd for such a visible feature). I'll need to check this further. Another feature that stood out rather well was Mons Vinogradov. Nearby I could clearly see the crater Euler. Around 20:24 UT I could see more thin cloud forming and heading my way. It wasn't obscuring the Moon yet but it looked like it could become a problem soon. By 20:26 UT it started to move in front of the Moon. At that time it wasn't thick enough to be too much of a problem. The next thing I noticed, in the terminator, was the crater Kepler. Encke also seemed to be visible. Further down the terminator I could see Gassendi on the north "shore" of Mare Humorum. On the south "shore" I could clearly see Doppelmayer. By 20:35 UT the cloud was starting to get thicker, making it harder to observe the Moon. Noticed the crater König. It was quite a striking sight, apparently sat within a ray coming from Tycho. I followed the same ray and noticed it running by the side of Bullialdus and Lubiniezky. Agatharchides could be seen on the other (western) side of the ray. I next noticed, in the mess of craters south of Mare Humorum, Hainzel and Mee. At 20:48 UT, while making the above observation, the cloud got too thick to be able to see anything very well any more so I decided to call an end to the session. |
