image by Jérôme Grenier
With north to the upper right this image is slighty askew, but shows some features that may be new. Le Monnier is center top (does it look higher, smoother and with fewer impact craters than the adjacent mare?), with Römer bottom right, and the Aldrovandi mare ridge slices diagonally near upper left. The slightly higher, older mare terrain at center left is cut by the Littrow rilles. A very delicate linear feature with a forked southern end is in the mare just east of the Aldravandi ridge. Apollo 15 shows this to be a very narrow series of older rilles. More intriguingly, Jérôme’s image shows another narrower linear feature on the mare just west of the long triangular shadow of the unnamed peak at the south end of the Littrow peaks. Only a sliver of this appears in the Lunar Orbiter IV view, but it shows up beautifully in an Apollo 15. From the point of view of imaging from the Earth I image that this is the discovery photo for both of these narrow rilles. Am I wrong?
Technical Details:
22 April 2007, 21:09 UT. Orion Optics (UK) OMC 12″ + barlow 2x + IR pass filter; stacked in Registax. I have enhanced this image slightly differently than Jérôme did. Note: the linked Apollo 15 images above can be clicked on for enlargements
Related Links:
Rükl charts 24 & 25
Jérôme’s website
Lunar Orbiter IV view
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