A new imaging session under the light of the Moon…
The almost full Moon phase is only rarely imaged by me. So this time, with our satellite at an respectable altitude above the horizon of 50 degrees, I’ve decided to image some of my least observed lunar craters. The seeing varied greatly, but on some occasions it reached estimated values of 7-8/10.
First, three large craters, Grimaldi, Riccioli and Hevelius. Note the many terraces inside Riccioli and near Grimaldi.
Craters Russel, Struve and Eddington in 7/10 seeing conditions. Note some small rilles on their floors.
Crater Pythagoras in RGB colors. This sequence was acquired in 6-7/10 seeing conditions:
And the Red image:
And another image of Pythagoras, this time under very good seeing conditions, despite low transparency due to cirrus clouds. Note the very sharp mountain slopes inside the crater, in great contrast with all the rest of the area.
A mosaic showing a large part of the South-Western areas towards the limb. So many interesting craters, especially Wargentin with its lava-filled floor. One other interesting crater is located to the right of Schickard: a small striped floor crater. Can you locate it?
Another area which I might have never imaged until now…Lavoisier craters.
There is a nice rima and something that looks like a small lava lake at one end. The rima is about 600-700 meters wide. Also managed to get most of the gigantic volcanic dome of Mons Rumker is this shot…
Perhaps my own personal favorite lunar image of the year: another infrequently imaged area showing so much diversity in lunar formations. A wealth of rimae and some rather strange looking terrain. Most is due to ejecta material resulted from the formation of the large impact named Mare Orientale.
And the last mosaic of the session, in very good seeing, showing again Pythagoras but also a lot more of the North-Western lunar areas.
maximus photography 