August 10, 2012

Brown Flows, Dark Ash

image by Yury Girin, Tver / Russia

What a wonderful image from an 8" scope. This emphasizes that great imaging is more than aperture,
it really is magic. The color pinpoints the dark pyroclastic deposits such as the Bode Rille ash at top
right and the Aestuum deposit southeast of Eratosthenes. The fact that the maria near these deposits
are not covered by them says that the lavas are younger. Changing topics, did you notice the strange
boundary just above the black corner of the image southeast of Copernicus? A bright ray and second-
ary crater chain trend from west, southwest to east, northeast. This alignment is also the boundary
between brown lava flows to the north and grayish ones to the south. But rays and secondary chains
have nothing to do with underlying geology because the rays and secondaries drop out of the sky on
anything below. So it must be that this is just a coincidence. Finally, as you look around this lovely
image notice the rough texture at bottom right where Imbrium ejecta drapes Fra Mauro and the Apollo
14 landing site. Usually we see this area under higher Sun and don't recognize how rough it really is.

Chuck Wood

Related Links
Rükl plate 32

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