image by Bruno Daversin
LPOD is used to receiving remarkable images but this is one of the best I have ever seen, taken by any telescope on Earth or in orbit. The rilles within Gassendi are beautifully depicted, but what is extraordinary and never before seen so well from Earth is the hilly area to the west of Gassendi. The series of nearly parallel thin rilles was totally unknown to me. Looking at the Lunar Orbiter IV image reveals the rilles, but not so dramatically as in Bruno’s image. The middle rille has a very unusual nature – it looks like a series of short curved segments that aren’t necessarily connected together. This may be a sinuous rille, but I am not certain. The sinuous-like rille and three other linear ones, and the edge of the knobby region to the left are all parallel and roughly evenly spaced. I don’t know what the spacing means here, and these rilles aren’t obviously related to the Humorum basin. Mysteries abound. But there is one interpretable feature on the smooth area to the far left – a small dome (unknown?) cut by a very delicate rille. And further south, is that a second very flat dome with a rimless pit? I can’t tell, can you? Congratulations to Bruno Daversin for once again setting a new imaging standard. This is a truly remarkable image, just like the others he sent…
Technical Details:
Feb 9, 2006. Ludiver Observatory 600 mm (24″) Schmidt-Cassegrain + webcam + IR filter.
Related Links:
Rükl charts 51 & 52
Ludiver’s Moon photos
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