image by Stefan Lammel, Uxbridge, England
The south polar region of the Moon attracts attention with its towering Leibnitz Mountains seen in profile, and craters, large and small, stacked nearly on top of each other. This magnificent view - with accidental gaps due to processing - is like seeing a diorama through a showcase window. The sharpness of the view and the beautiful tonality are more like an acurate model than a mosaic imaged through a 31 km thick atmosphere of an object 385,000 km distant. And because the libration is favorable we can clearly see right up to the limb - where the crater Drygalski is cut by the left black strip. Beyond this 163 km wide crater to the right is a broad peak at about 107°W longitude at the rim of Ashbrook crater. This is apparently not one of the peaks that Schroter designated with a Greek letter about 200 years ago. Further to the right, behind Bailly, is the Copernicus look alike Hausen, seen almost in profile. Those are the hard features, now you can enjoy identifying all the craters in the nearfield! To help, maybe, compare with a polar Clementine view.
Technical Details:
14 October, 2006, 5:38 UT. 10″ f4.8 Newtonian + DMK21-AF0 + Astronomik Red filter + 4x Powermate. South up.
Related Links:
Rükl charts 71, 72, 73
Stefan’s website
Christmas is coming - consider leaving a list of lunar books on top of a spouse’s pillow - just make sure you include the LPOD URL so that you support LPOD when buying lunar books (or ANY book) from Amazon!
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