Astronomy · Observing Logs · Tag · moon

The following are all the observing reports tagged with the term moon displayed with the latest report first. If the report contains a direct reference to the tag then that part of the report will be displayed, otherwise only the report heading details will be present and you should click on the link to view the full report.

With high clouds already coalescing into all-over cloud cover I turned my telescope to the only visible target - the Moon. As discussed on the recent Sky at Night, there is currently a favourable southern libration with many craters around the south pole more clearly visible than usual. I spent some time with both the 25mm Plossl and 10mm Plossl observing various areas of the Moon. The 10mm gave me a complete view of the disc, fitting perfectly into the FoV.

As pointed out by Pete Lawrence on tSaN I observed L57, Reiner Gamma, a particularly bright (high albedo) swirl in the Oceanus Procellarum. It is thought this may have been caused by an impact on the far side of the Moon which forced material out on the opposite side in line with the magentic field.

With the 25mm Plossl in I also took the opportunity to take a quick image of the moon using eyepiece projection.

To align the finderscope and check out the optics I first pointed the scope at the waxing Moon, only 3 days from full. It was bright in the south-west and immediately focus showed a beautifully crisp image. The details was quite astonishing with ejecta trails clearly visible across the Maree and the craters at the terminator awesomely three-dimensional.

Whilst taking the shots of Saturn and Leo I also checked out the bright, low, full moon which looked very impressive hanging just above the headstones.

I finally swung the scope over to the Moon to have a quick check on it. The view was crisp and clear but unfortunately my battery ran out before I could try a shot - next time!