"Hyginus to Hell"
This is my last shot from yesterday afternoon, and I went for a close-up of the area along the terminator, in the middle area of the Moon.
The line of three craters prominent in image center includes, from top to bottom, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel. These are three of my favorite photo targets on the Moon - I always see them as an upside-down snowman.
At bottom center is the large, heavily worn crater Deslandres. It is a very old lunar feature so badly battered it was not recognized as a crater until well into the 20th Century. Instead, it was known as the "Hell Plain", after the crater Hell, prominent in this photo toward the western (left) rim of Deslandres Crater, near the terminator; Hell's interior is still deeply shadowed.
In the upper right is an interesting area, marked by notable rimae features. Rimae are cracks or fissures on the Moon's surface. They sometimes mark areas where the surface has split or cracked due to tectonic forces; other times they mark channels left by flows of lava. In this area you have examples of both kinds. Just in the upper right is one of the most interesting, Rima Hyginus. It is seen as a curved feature with a crater (Hyginus) at the center of the curve. Hyginus is a volcanic caldera, not an impact crater, and the rimae extending from it probably mark lava flow channels. Below Hyginus Crater and Rima Hyginus is a well-defined crater, Treisnecker. To the right of Triesnecker is another area of rimae (Rimae Triesnecker) which are probably the result of tectonic forces below the surface.
ASI ZWO290MM Camera
Optolong IR-Pass filter, 650nm
Explore Scientific ED80 APO f/6 Refractor
Explore Scientific 3X Barlow
Celestron Advanced VX EQ Mount
"Hyginus to Hell"
This is my last shot from yesterday afternoon, and I went for a close-up of the area along the terminator, in the middle area of the Moon.
The line of three craters prominent in image center includes, from top to bottom, Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel. These are three of my favorite photo targets on the Moon - I always see them as an upside-down snowman.
At bottom center is the large, heavily worn crater Deslandres. It is a very old lunar feature so badly battered it was not recognized as a crater until well into the 20th Century. Instead, it was known as the "Hell Plain", after the crater Hell, prominent in this photo toward the western (left) rim of Deslandres Crater, near the terminator; Hell's interior is still deeply shadowed.
In the upper right is an interesting area, marked by notable rimae features. Rimae are cracks or fissures on the Moon's surface. They sometimes mark areas where the surface has split or cracked due to tectonic forces; other times they mark channels left by flows of lava. In this area you have examples of both kinds. Just in the upper right is one of the most interesting, Rima Hyginus. It is seen as a curved feature with a crater (Hyginus) at the center of the curve. Hyginus is a volcanic caldera, not an impact crater, and the rimae extending from it probably mark lava flow channels. Below Hyginus Crater and Rima Hyginus is a well-defined crater, Treisnecker. To the right of Triesnecker is another area of rimae (Rimae Triesnecker) which are probably the result of tectonic forces below the surface.
ASI ZWO290MM Camera
Optolong IR-Pass filter, 650nm
Explore Scientific ED80 APO f/6 Refractor
Explore Scientific 3X Barlow
Celestron Advanced VX EQ Mount