image by Jim Phillips
Often you can identify who took an image just by looking at it. Different imagers have distinct styles of processing that yield signature hues. Jim has a very characteristic type of imaging - he hugs the terminator, going after subtle features only visible with the lowest illumination. This view of the southern Sinus Roris is classic Phillips - it pushes the exposure to capture a feature perhaps never seen before - a delicate bump between the Sharp Rille and the crater Markov, the largest shadowed rim near bottom right. The 20 km wide feature has very gentle slopes, rising imperceptibly from the mare. It is the type of dome that I call a swell, with no sign of a central pit, nor a hemispherical shape. Notice that the mare to the left (east) is smoother than that to the west. Looking at this area on a Clementine high Sun mosaic reveals that this roughness difference exactly maps out the older Telemann Formation lavas (rough and bright) and the younger and darker Sharp Formation ones. The dome is made of Sharp lavas, which may be only 2.7 b.y. old. No domes are reported in this region from this far north, and the GLR Group plans to investigate this one carefully. Congratulations, Jim!
Technical Details:
Sept 23, 2007. TMB 8″ f/9 refractor.
Related Links:
Rükl plates 9 & 1
A chocolate view
Yesterday's LPOD: A New Lunar Book; It's Free
Tomorrow's LPOD: Sunrise on the Plateau
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