Above~ The southern night sky on May 5, 2022. 30 sec @f3.5 ISO 1250, 8mm Sigma fisheye on a Nikon 610.
Thursday, May 5, 2022~ 9:05 – 10:40 pm.
Location~ Moosehorn Creek, NB
Sky Conditions~ Mainly clear. Not promising earlier but clouds cleared pretty much by 9pm.
Temp~ 11° 40% humidity, 18 km wind gusts
Moonrise~ 8:53 am
Sunset~ 8:34 pm
Total Darkness~ 10:38pm
Age of Moon~ 5d 3h 36m
5 Day Moon and focused on observing~
Was clouded out yesterday for the 4 Day Moon.
On the 5 Day Moon the 10mm Ethos revealed spectacular detail. Observed the Rheita Valley or Vallis Rheita–quite the gouge in the surface, showing up nicely with the 10mm and then later the 6mm. Decided to go in for a closer look with a 4.7mm. That was quite the look, esp after I put it in and it was entered on Mare Nectaris. Wow!
Continued on with Rheita, then decided Nectaris was just too much to pass up. Observed the beginning and the end of Rupes Altai and the really funky “pimple” of Piccolomini–only the rim and the centre were visible. Terminator cut off the rest of Rupes Altai–will probably reveal itself in about 4-5 hours, don’t know. Hope to see it at another time.
This is unusual that the days of the month are actually corresponding to the Lunar days.
Shut it down at 10:40 but managed to get a couple of fisheye shots of the night sky after total darkness had come.
Above~ The night sky on May 5, 2022. This is the same at the top of the page except the red led lights were off. 30 sec @f3.5 ISO 1250, 8mm Sigma fisheye, Nikon 610.
Summary~
Moon at 5d 3h 36m at 73 magnification (10mm)
Rheita Valley or Vallis Rheita at 73 magnification,
also at 122 & 155 magnification
Mare Nectaris– 155 magnification
Rupes Altai– 155 magnification
Piccolomini– 155 magnification
Scope–ES Comet Hunter – 152mm f/4.8 731mm Maksutov-Newtonian
Mount–Celestron AVX
Eyepieces–10mm Ethos, 6mm Delos, 4.7 Ethos
Music~
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos
with Rinaldo Alessandrini & Concerto Italiano.
Sources~
New Atlas of the Moon by Thierry Legault & Serge Brunier [2006]. Beautiful Firefly reference book with overlays, unfortunately out of print.
50 Things to See on the Moon~ by John A. Read.
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.
