Petavius Naked!

Petavius Naked!

When I see images like this I am convinced that Bruno Daversin drives a lunar orbiting spacecraft rather than just a 24" telescope at the Ludiver Planetarium in northern France. Bruno uses the same techniques as many amateurs - summing of the best images from a webcam video - but either because of the large aperture and high optical quality of his instrument, or excellent seeing, or his digital darkroom techniques or something else magical, his images closely resemble those from spacecraft. This fabulous view confirms all the rilles and lava patches seen on KC Pau's excellent image and shows a number of additional features. At the southern (right) end of the crater floor there is a broad and angular-edged region that could be a dome with an off-center rimless pit. If we call this a dome, what do we call the similar elevated but elongated area just to the left? The hilly areas above (east) and to the left (north) of the central peaks contain about a dozen rilles - some straight and others mildly sinuous. The northernmost portion of the floor is very smooth, as if it is very young lava flows. And Petavius holds the 15th largest (out of 75 tabulated) pyroclastic deposits. There is a lot more to understand about Petavius and this image provides much to think about!