Tag Archives: Crater

Agassiz’s mentor

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This entry is part 11 of 16 in the series Lunarcy

When the libration is right you get a rare view of a huge crater that is normally out of sight. Here you can see it as a large oval near the limb with black basaltic flooded areas on its floor and a sparkling white offset central peak. This is the great crater Humbolt (213km dia.) named after the explorer, naturalist and geographer that was the mentor of Louis Agassiz. This presentation gives us a nice demonstration of just how shallow these grand depressions are. It has huge cliffs on the far side and a floor covered with rimae just barely seen from earth view here. These were likely caused from settling of the flooded floor as it cooled. Adjacent to the near side of Humbolt is the ghostly outline the crater Phillips (128km). Just beyond Phillips is a small bright floored crater Phillips A (13km). In the upper left corner of this image is the fabulous crater Petavius with the … Continue reading →

Plateau Sunrise

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This entry is part 7 of 16 in the series Lunarcy

Sunrise on the Aristarchus Plateau is always a thrilling sight whether in your first 60mm telescope or a 400mm cannon! The eye-popping crater Aristarchus (41km diameter) in the center of this image, is the brightest crater on the moon and at 175 million years old, a Jurassic Crater, it’s one of the younger ones. Some dinosaur had a front seat to a spectacular impact show! Notice the nice terracing on the interior wall of this crater. Most of the Plateau is in shadow here. Aristarchus itself is in the southeast corner. You can see the east side of the Plateau going north from Aristarchus. Above and to the right of Aristarchus is the arc of the partially flooded Prinz (49km) and the beautiful Rimae Prinz just above. Immediately above the north rim of Prinz is the odd crater Vera. It is the south end of one of the rimae that you can see running north a little further to the … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – August 14, 2018

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This entry is part 56 of 132 in the series In the Sky This Week

The constellation Orion is now fully visible in the eastern predawn sky; I had someone at a Perseid meteor party ask me if Orion was what they were seeing in the east – I laughed and mentioned my post from last week where Orion had not quite fully risen before sunrise. The southern sky will be simply fantastic for observing this week, with 3 three planets splashed across the sky. The Moon joins the planets in the south later this week; this weekend will be an outstanding time to do some sidewalk astronomy – which is exactly what my wife and I will be doing at the Michigan ComicCon this weekend at Detroit’s Cobo Center! The Moon joins Venus and Jupiter in the western sky at dusk on Aug. 14th. Southern Hemisphere: From Antonina, Brazil, Venus and the crescent Moon are high in the western sky after sunset on Aug. 14th. The Moon The Moon is a waxing crescent visible … Continue reading →

Eratosthenes Drawing Drama plus an Experiment opportunity for schools all over the planet

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On that cold evening back in 2007 Eratosthenes looked powerful in its position emerging into the suns warm rays. Rupes Recta was also inviting and Plato almost called me again. Even drenched in sunlight Plato’s steel grey floor carried those unmistakable flame shaped shadows. Eratosthenes is a truly dramatic crater, a sweeping mountain chain whips away from it in a visual series, of broken, deep shadows. Montes Appeninus is cut and chopped first by Mons Wolf, and then by Mons Ampere. Next in line, Christian Huygens name is lent to Mons Huygens named in honour of the discoverer of Saturn’s largest moon Titan . This high mountain (164,000ft) is a billion miles away from those primal methane or ethane seas discovered by the Cassini Huygens mission on one of its routine flybys. Mons Bradley and Mons Hadley cradle the Apollo 15 lunar landing area from 1971. A mission that put wheels on the moon for the first time. This wonderfully … Continue reading →