April 3, 2012
Latitudinal Band Pan
image by George Tarsoudis
Usually when I observe I sweep up and down, following the terminator. And then I move toward the limb and repeat.
George demonstrates how intriguing a sweep perpendicular to the terminator can be. This particular latitude band
sweeps past some of the most spectacular lunar sights, starting with Plato nearly at the terminator and moving east
to the Alpine Valley. Then there are Aristoteles and Eudoxus followed by the death-crossing fractures near Bürg,
and over to the heroes of Atlas and Hercules. Once past the bright but tiny oblique impact pit east of Atlas there is
little to catch the eye except the lonely, but hopeful patch of mare called Lacus Spei. When I observe I can see and
recognize these scenic giants, but George's image captures many second order gems that I often can't see at the
eyepiece. These include the rilles east of Plato and the inner meandering rille of the Alpine Valley. I've seen the dark
halo east of Baily but never the volcanic vents that produced it. Again the dark halos within Atlas - at least the southern
one - is detectable at the eyepiece, but the concentric and other rilles usually aren't visible for me. In looking back at
visual observer reports and drawings from before the 1990s when high quality imaging began to appear it is easy to
understand why observers wondered if changes occurred. So many details are at the limit of visual detectability that
it was difficult to know which drawings could be trusted. The remarkable thing is how often the classic observers did
get details at least approximately right. We are spoiled by today's amateur imaging.
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
Mar 31, 2012. Telescope 10 inch @f/6.3, camera Unibrain fire-i 785, filters Red, barlow 3X.
Related Links
Rükl plates 3 to 16
Full res image
George's website
Yesterday's LPOD: Interrupted Chain
Tomorrow's LPOD: Southwest Corner
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