April 20, 2018
New Domes?
Originally published December 12, 2008
image by K.C. Paul, Hong Kong
I have seen tens of thousands of photos of the Moon - all areas and all lightings, and yet I constantly see new things. Do you see anything here that you hadn't noticed before? For some people it will be the family of rilles west of Gassendi - but they are known and even have a name: the Mersenius Rilles. For me, K.C.'s image revealed a dome I hadn't noticed before - its on the flat floor of Mersenius P at bottom left/center. The dome is about 7 km wide and gently rises to a rounded summit. A quick survey of the area showed three other possible domes. The most conspicuous may not be a volcanic dome because it seems a little steeper. It is near Billy (shadow-filled at upper left) - about 1.5 of that crater's width to its east in an alcove of lava. The possible dome is like a thick horse shoe, opening to the north, and about 10.5 km in diameter. The other two domes are next to each other about half way between the first two in a patch of mare material. Each is about 8 km wide but they look different. The left one is more conical and has a broader shadow. The right one is flat and appears to have a central pit. Are these domes? I don't know, I did look at the map of GRL dome distributions and don't see dots in exactly these positions. I don't have time to do my homework, perhaps you can check them on other telescopic and orbital images. Let me know what you find.
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
9 Dec with 10" Newtonian with 2.5X barlow
Related Links
Rükl plates 40 and 51
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Tomorrow's LPOD: Faultless Image
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