September 22, 2014

T-Rex Smile

south up image by Maximilian Teodorescu, Dumitrana (Ilfov), Romania.

It's only the bottom half of the dinosaur's mouth, but the teeth are numerous and sharp enough to rip through any careless observer who stumbles into this bay. Of course, the shadow magnification of a very low Sun exaggerates the irregularities, and the teeth are more like grinders than incisors. And across the Rainbow floor, the Sun angle decreases to nothing, increasing the detection of even smaller features. The four secondary craters, all in a row, provide a navigation beacon. To the left is the dimple crater reported in an earlier LPOD (which I can't find). The nearby, barely illuminated ridge casting a broad shadow is a 50-60 m high wrinkle ridge. Notice the thin shadow between the dimple crater and the bottom of the four secondary craters? That is a ~20 m high mini-wrinkle ridge revealed by extreme shadow magnification. The rest of the bay floor has more prominent ridges and impact craters, well seen on an early LRO low Sun mosaic.

Chuck Wood

Technical Details
September 19, 2014. C11 SCT with 2x TV Powermate, Baader Red CCD filter and ASI120MM camera. Four image mosaic, each image a 900 frames stack. Seeing 6/10.

Related Links
21st Century Atlas chart 20.
Max's website

Yesterday's LPOD: A Crater Without an Owner

Tomorrow's LPOD: Pink And Grey Lavas

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