February 24, 2013

Camouflage Moon

left image by " rel="nofollow Philippe Tosi, and right from Larouse Encyclopedia of Astronomy

As soon as I saw Phillipe's delicate pastel image I immediately thought of Lucien Rudaux' map of lunar colors.
The map appears in the 1967 volume, Larouse Encyclopedia of Astronomy and is also " rel="nofollow online; the earliest
version I've seen is from " rel="nofollow 1928. Rudaux, like today's Bill Hartmann, was an astronomer as well as a talented
artist. He apparently had extremely sensitive color vision for his map depicted hues that are remarkably con-
sistent with modern color saturated images - see for example the details along the western edge of Mare Seren-
itatis. Radaux' most intense color is the Aristarchus Plateau, which even I once saw with a mustard hue. It must
be some trick of the eye but I find that if I look closely at Rudaux's map and then switch quickly to the same
area on Phillipe's image that the color momentarily seems more conspicuous.

" rel="nofollow Chuck Wood

Technical Details
Self made newton 410mm F/5.6 + eos 5DMII. Exposures: 1/100; 1/200; 1/400; 1/800; 1/1600; 1/3200; 1/6400 sec;
process by photomatix 4.2 pro developed by HDRsoft (fusion of exposures)

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