29 June 2023, The Moon




This was the first clear night in some time. I was originally planning on setting up in the pasture, but the ground and grass were soaking wet, so I set up on the driveway.

I had difficulty getting the alignment right Tried Arcturus and Vega, but couldn't get Vega in the field of view (was near zenith and I had trouble seeing in the red dot finder to get it close). Redid using Auto 2 Star for the first time, then went to Mizar. Alignment was still off, manually located Mizar and tried for M101, but couldn't see it. Moon was at 87%, and alignment may have still been off some. Tried M13 again, but couldn't locate it.

Since the Moon was washing out so much, I decided to focus my effort on it. I got out my copy of "Turn Left At Orion", and used the pages for Days 9-10, and Full Moon, to identify landmarks. I started out with the 24mm reticle eyepiece in place still, then went to the 32mm. The entire Moon fit into the field of view for the 32MM. I also tried to take some eyepiece pictures with my cell phone, A Samsung A32 5G. The image above is the only successful one I managed. I am holding the phone freehand, so there is some vignetting on the left side. Then changed to the 17mm eyepiece to look at details.

I identified Mares Serenatis, Tranquilitatis, Fecunditatis, Imbrium, Crisium, Frigaris, and Sinus Iridium. I then identified craters Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho, Gassendi, Schiller, Aristarchus, Herodotus, and Herodotus Omega. I then concentrated on the features shown in the inset on Page 34. I focused on Schroters Valley ( sorry, can't seem to get to umlaut over the o). The terminator was just past Prine. Along the curve just west of Schroters Valley were three features that showed up bright dots.

 

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