April 25, 2010
Nasymth & Carpenter's Moon
south up image by Maurice Collins, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Imagine a universe where you could observe the whole of the lunar disk on the terminator,
where you don't need to wait for it to pass a given feature to observe it at low sun angles.
Imagine an image that allows you to take in all of the surface at once at a terminator's illumination.
In this map I have just constructed, such a place exists - in the computer and the imagination.
The sun in this map is at a constant elevation of 1 degree grazing incidence from the East
across the whole of the lunar surface. The features that stand out for me are the many wrinkle
ridges in the maria and the general roughness of the highlands compared to the maria. I hope
it proves useful to people. Thanks again to Jim Mosher for the mod to LTVT to allow me to do
this, and for Chuck Wood for suggesting the idea!
Maurice Collins
Note by Chuck Wood
I made this image full size - and thus huge - so you can have it as a reference. Both Maurice and
I immediately noticed how much these low Sun views look like the plaster models in the Moon
book by Nasymth and Carpenter in the 1870s.
Warning: These images show so many features in a new light that I expect to have more LPODs
next week derived from Maurice's handiwork.
Related Links
Maurice's website
Yesterday's LPOD: Ipad for LPOD
Tomorrow's LPOD: Caucasian Shadows
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