February 24, 2013

Camouflage Moon

left image by 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 online; the earliest
version I've seen is from 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.

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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