August 14, 2012

Seeing Through a Glass Clearly

image by F. Colas, J.L. Dauvergne, M. Delcroix, T. Legault and Christian Viladrich

Thomas Elger, the leader of lunar observers at the end of the 19th century, called Clavius one of the most striking of telescopic objects.
However familiar we may consider ourselves to be with its features, there is always something fresh to note and to admire as often as we
examine its apparently inexhaustible details. This new image from the Pic du Midi 33" refractor reduces the number of those inexhaustable
details. This image is better than previous telescopic images, but it should be because of using a telescope 2-4 times larger than what's in
most amateur's backyards. We are simply lucky to have all such great images. This view adds improved defintion to all the features in
Clavius, including the features defined by a lack. The lack of roughness and reduced number of impact craters at the bottom center of the
crater and near top center confirms that these apparently younger surfaces are real. Another real place is the light-hued rectangle in the
middle of the floor that looks like where a chaulk-dusted eraser was banged against a blackboard. Even looking with LRO closeups this does
not appear to be a splat of Tycho ejecta for there are no embedded secondary craters. So this great images makes some features better seen
and clarifies our search for explanations.

Chuck Wood

Technical Details
Aug. 7, 2012. 1 m Pic du Midi telescope + Skynyx 2.1M camera + RG610 filter. This is a mosaic of 3 frames, each being the addition of 400
images; processing was done with Autostakkert.

Related Links
Rükl plate 72

Yesterday's LPOD: Chains

Tomorrow's LPOD: Inside the Rainbow

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