December 17, 2014
Classic View
south up image by Yuri Goryachko, Mikhail Abgarian, Konstantin Morozov, Minsk, Belarus
Originally published June 6, 2009.
One of my favorite views at the eyepiece is just north of Mare Imbrium with Plato almost coming into view and the Alpine Valley slashing through the Alps. This wonderful image is better than any of my visual views and highlights a suspicious linear feature. Notice the line that comes from the left to the bottom tip of the Alpine Valley and bends up a little and then cuts through the Imbrium Basin debris? Part of the way this feature is expressed as a bounding ridge of the ejecta, and part of the way it is our eyes connecting pieces that happen to fall on the line. But the abrupt southern edge of Mare Frigoris parallels this lineament, and perhaps continues in the mare above the name Konstantin as a short segment of a wide-floored rille. These parallel features may all be remnants of mostly buried rilles, and indeed, two others at oblique angles to these, cut up towards the western (right) side of Plato. Every place on the Moon has a multilayered history, with clues of unknown past events sometimes noticed when the lightening, the librations and seeing are just right.
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
May 2, 2009, 15:45-18:30 UT. 230 mm Mak-Cass, F=3000 + 1.72 X barlow + Unibrain Fire-i 702 CCD camera (IEEE-1394, 1388x1040, 18 fps) + Astronim red filter. Processing in Registax, Avistack, Maxim DL, PTGui and Photoshop.
Related Links
Rükl plates 3 & 4
Minsk Miracle Imagers website
