January 31, 2013

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Pastel Evidence

LPOD-Jan31-13.jpg
north to left image by Дмитрий Кананович (Dzmitry Kananovich), Tallinn, Estonia

LPOD-Jan31b-13.jpg

(Add your own "d" to "Humboldt".)

Most enhanced color images of the Moon are of the maria because of the extreme color contrasts due to the compositional differences of the lavas. But Dzmitry's colorful image demonstrates that there are intriguing color differences in the highlands too. The higlands themselves here have two major tones - a pink around Humboldt and north (left) of Petavius, and elsewhere a pale teal with a greenish tint. The contrasting hue is blue-white, representing pulverized highlands distributed as rays. Toward the limb, the interiors of small fresh craters and Humboldt's central peaks are beacons of brightness. At the front of the image are the brilliant headlights on either side of Stevinus. Another blue ray is the very strange one that radiates away from the bright-rimmed crater Adams B. As described recently the crater is elongated and possibly was formed by a low angle impact, but the elongation is perpendicular to the ray direction. Finally, the oblique impact crater Petavius B is now well known, but I see a surprise. Just south of B is a slightly bright spotch that appears as a dull yellow. A similar tinge occurs along the edge of the rays that define the v-shaped zone of exclusion. On the LRO QuickMap it does not stand out as unusual. I never noticed this before and don't know what it means.

Chuck Wood
Technical Details
January 18, 2013, at around 18:30 UT.
Grayscale image: TAL-250K telescope at prime focus (2130 mm), Baader red CCD-filter, Basler acA 640-100gm CCD. Best 200 of 4000 frames were stacked in Autostakkert!2, drizzle 1.5x. LR deconvolution, contrast adjustment.
Colour image: L(R) RG(UV) composite, TAL-250K telescope at prime focus (2130 mm), Baader R, G-filters, and Shuler UV-pass filter. Basler acA 640-100gm CCD. Best 200 of 4000 frames were stacked in Autostakkert!2,drizzle 1.5x. LR deconvolution, contrast adjustment, colour enhancement.
Related Links
Rükl plate 59
21st Century Atlas chart 4.


Yesterday's LPOD: Intersections

Tomorrow's LPOD: Winning Moon



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