October 27, 2008
A Photographic Rukl
Mario Weigand image from The Moon-Wiki and map from Rükl Atlas of the Moon
The Moon-Wiki continues to grow and offer new features. Over the last few days Jim Mosher has constructed a set of pages that provide a matching photograph for every one of the 72 map sheets of Rükl's invaluable Atlas of the Moon. Jim has taken images from a few amateurs and the Consolidated Lunar Atlas and has used LTVT to make them all the same scale and rotated to zero libration - this means that each image - such as the left figure above - shows the same area as the corresponding Rükl Atlas map (right side). In this example, Sheet 59, a section near the eastern limb is depicted from Columbo to Snellius, with Petavius being the most important feature. The comparison is very instructive. The image obviously is a better match for what would be observed in a telescope, and the legibility of the crater names is better. But only the named features are included, at this scale the lettered ones (as on Rükl) would be too confusing. Also, the map writes names along linear features (the Petavius Rille) so it is easier to identify what is meant. A major difference is that the drawing shows all features equally well but the image has a different Sun angle from east to west. The Wiki page for Sheet 59 includes links to the Wiki entries for all 15 named features on the sheet, and has convenient links to adjacent sheets. Here is the front page for this image atlas with the same sheet boundaries as Rükl's wonderful map atlas. Use it awhile and then consider if you'd like to help make the Moon-Wiki more useful. Jim suggests (see Adding Index Maps Links section) that it would be somewhat tedious, but even more valuable, if the entry for each named crater in the Wiki was altered slightly to link to the atlas image. Volunteers are invited to help. Jim's contribution also emphasizes that the wiki format makes it easy to reuse content to add to the this already huge lunar resource. For example, someone could add a page for each night of a lunation, with links to the existing descriptions for the most interesting craters visible on that night. And then, of course, we would really need an image of each nightly phase...
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
The Rükl Atlas and maps are copyrighted and one is shown here only for comparison purposes. Please respect Rükl's work and do not scan his maps and place them online.
Related Links
Rükl plate 59, of course!
Yesterday's LPOD: Rille Cut
Tomorrow's LPOD: A Single Twin
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