June 5, 2011

West Side Story

north to the right image by Howard Eskildsen, Ocala, Florida

I admire Howard's imaging. He relentlessly uses his standard size amateur telescope to image the nearside
under a variety of illuminations. This near terminator view reveals an area I've seldom seen with this lighting.
And each different view elicits different observations and understandings. Just above Delisle is a mountain
informally known as the Baby. That is what the very serious scientist Gerard Kuiper called it, seeing it as a
big-headed child crawling to the south. But with this illumination it looks more like a baby stegosaurus. Near
the left edge of the image is the circular mass of hills called Mount Vinogradov, with Brayley appearing to the
upper left. Between Brayley and Vinogradov is a small hill casting a long tapered shadow. The hill seems to
be on an elongated mare swell with a bright ridge that extends the lineation of the hill. Finally, to the right of
the hill are two mare ridges - the slightly more conspicuous one is Arduino - that probably mark the faint
continualtion of the Apennine Ring along the west side of the Imbrium Basin.

Chuck Wood

Related Links
Rükl plates 9 & 19

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