image by Paolo R. Lazzarotti
I have never seen the Suess Rille at the telescope and most of you haven’t either. Its not even well shown on Lunar Orbiter IV photos. The difficulty comes from it being a narrow rille that is not very deep and hence casts only a tiny shadow. Paolo’s image shows it, with its tight curves and possible collapse pits. The rille starts about 20 km north of the elongated collapse pit near the top of the image. The crater Marius is just out of the field to the upper left, and Suess is the 9 km wide crater at bottom center. Near the middle of the frame where a small crater sits on top of it the rille essentially disappears. A thin faint sinuous hint of the rille continues south for about 20 km. The Seuss Rille is presumably associated with the Marius Hills (a low plateau of hills and domes just to the west), as is the more conspicuous Marius Rille to the north, and the Galilaei Rille that wends through the Hills. And also, just out of the image at the north is the crashed remains of Luna 7 - a planned soft-lander that failed.
Technical Details:
11 January 2006, at 18:14 UT, 315 mm Dall-Kirkham Spada telescope (f/25), Lumenera Infinity 2-1M camera, Edmund Optics G filter IR blocked, 160 frames stack out of 2000. I have strongly enhanced Paolo’s image - click here to see his original processing.
Related Links:
Rükl chart 29
Paolo’s website
Lunar Orbiter IV view; don’t be confused by the prominent Marius Rille at the top of the image! Look to the bottom to see Suess’ elusive wiggler.
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