Above~the 12 Day Moon at 12d 3h 5m. Still ambient light at at 8:52 pm. 1/60 sec, ISO 200, 2x Powermate, Nikon 5100 on a f4.8 731mm ES Comet Hunter.
Thursday, May 12, 2022~ 7:50 – 9:35 pm.
Location~ Moosehorn Creek, NB
Sky Conditions~ High, thin clouds everywhere except to the south.
Temp~ 25° 28%H High today of 29°
Sunset~ 8:43 pm
Total Darkness~ 10:53pm
Moonrise~ 4:31 pm
Age of Moon~ 12d 2h 27m Brightness is now at 86%
12 Day Moon~
This was the 2nd day to come out and crack open the roof to let the scope climatized a bit. Also started Thermacell for bugs.
Spent time studying. Went for the 1st look with the 13mm at 8:15. Still too light out of course, but even then Aristarchus just popped.
At 8:50 pm decided to get some shots. Lunar Cycle time was 12d 3h 5m.
Above and below~ the 12 Day Moon at 12d 3h 5m. 1/30 sec, ISO 400, 4x Powermate, Nikon 5100 on a f4.8 731mm ES Comet Hunter.
Put away camera at 8:58 pm and popped the 13mm back in. Astonishing detail, especially of Aristarchus and Herodotus. Could not really see Schroter’s Valley all that well. However, what was really standing out in this time frame was a small crater I could only identify as Marius.
Machine punched craters~
Still looking at the big picture, to the south there were a series of craters some of which looked like they had been punched in with a machine punch as they were all fairly uniform in size and highlighted right next to the Terminator. I believe they were Segner, Zucchius, Bettinus, Kircher and Wilson. The wall (or Great Wall) of Schickard was just starting to show. Wow.
After a last look thru the 13mm, I decided to go in closer to see if I could see Schroter’s Valley. The 6mm didn’t really do it, but the 4.7 did. However, I don’t think I would have even noticed it on my own in this time frame without someone pointing it out. It was pretty subtle at this point, perhaps a few more hours are necessary.
Finished off with a 6mm Delos ride along the Terminator. There was a very strange (but pleasant) almost geometric formation by Gassendi. It was all astounding, the detail.
Packed it in at 9:35 pm.
Summary~
Moon at 12d 3h 5m at 56 magnification (13mm)
Aristarchus, Herodotus and Marius at 56 magnification
Segner, Zucchius, Bettinus, Kircher and Wilson at 56 magnification
Schickard at 56 magnification
Schroter’s Valley at 197 magnification
Scope– ES Comet Hunter – 152mm f/4.8 731mm Maksutov-Newtonian
Mount– Celestron AVX
Eyepieces used– 13mm Ethos, 6mm Delos, 4.7 Ethos
Music~
Since the Chopin piece from yesterday somehow got cut short I decided to listen to it again from the beginning. Great stuff.
Arthur Rubinstein: Rubinstein Chopin Nocturnes.
Sources~
New Atlas of the Moon by Thierry Legault & Serge Brunier [2006]. Beautiful Firefly reference book with overlays, unfortunately out of print.
Sky and Telescope’s Field Map of the Moon~Mirror image laminated fold out map. I use this all the time, handy.
The PhotoPills App~ Exact time and age of the Lunar Cycle, sunset, twilight phase info for our gps location, etc. Great app.
50 Things to See on the Moon~ by John A. Read.
