July 8, 2006

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The Baby & the Skull

Delisle___Diophantus_WES-LPOD.jpg

image by Wes Higgins

We remember features better if we can connect them to a story or funny name. Although it is officially (and boringly) named Mons Delisle, the curved narrow mountain range just southwest of Delisle is memorable if we call it The Baby as Ewen Whitaker does. In the old days, before the meddlesome IAU mandated that lunar maps and photos have north up, lunar resources were published with south up as they had been for 150 years. In a south up view (as in this image) Mons Delisle does look like a crawling baby, with large head, two outstretched arms and trailing legs. And Ewen always delights in explaining why the baby was hustling - it was escaping the Skull, which was previously known as Delisle Alpha - until the IAU abandoned Greek letter designations for lunar mountains. The Skull does look like one, with most of the bone above the eye sockets missing. The Baby and the Skull seem to be part of a large Imbrium basin ring that also passes though the Jura Mountains and Plato - a different ring than ones defined by the isolated mountains on the eastern side of the mare. Wes’ image also shows - just barely - segments of the very faint zig-zaggy Diophantus Rille that meanders between Delisle and Diophantus. And at the bottom left is part of the Delisle Rille that starts at an elongated collapse trough.

Chuck Wood

Technical Details:
June 7, 2006, 18″ Reflector, Infinity 2.1M camera, stack of 115 frames, Map processing with reference frames.

Related Links:
Rükl charts 9 & 19
Bruno Daversin’s low sun view
Wes’ lunar photos

Yesterday's LPOD: A Green Flow on a Green Sea

Tomorrow's LPOD: Flying Over Tycho


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