Backyard M
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Backyard Mn
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Lunation 1029 Feb 28th - March 28th 2006
March 22nd 2006 - moon rises around 03:50 tomorrow morning
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| Saturn | The Twins | Mars |
| Cloud band, Titan and maybe another closer in | 20:00 UT Sky pinkish, sky-trails spreading, only the bright stars showing well yet | Small now |
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| Streaks of cloud in the west as the sun goes down 18:40 | Phone wires, chimneys and sky-trails to the south where Gemini and Orion still lurk, flanked by Saturn and Mars hidden in the spring-like evening!! |
cloud .... added a couple of pics to March 6th from videos ...
March 19th - early hours .... zzzz!
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| 04:45 Moon and Jupiter just past south now - Moon low above houses - couldn't see Jupiter's moons - some cloud still around | Crisp in binocs, didn't get the Bresser to look closer - too steep an angle, but the seas stood out darkly and Grimaldi was on view |
02:30 UT
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| 02:30 Cloud had lifted, Moon and Jupiter sneaking behind the houses in the South | To the East, the bright summer stars put on a show till the clouds noticed and dashed in. Lyra and Cygnus were their usual glorious selves. Following a satellite from near Deneb I got lost and ended up in the Coathanger, or Brocchi's Cluster (graphic as seen in 10x50 binocs) |
March 18th 2006
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| Some breaks in cloud in the West as the sun gets lower |
18 day moon late and low - look for it
after midnight near Jupiter low in the SE if you are up .......  |
March 15th - something big and round spotted in the sky!
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| Any ideas, folks? |
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| Ah - it's a 15 day moon
hiding behind the outhouse chimneys! Even brought its own veil of
thin cloud.
Seeing dreadful, pictures even worse, but here are some of the places which caught my attention |
It was a night to look for bright spots and dark areas. Here I think it's young Anaxagoras (or Goldschmidt?) shining above the Mare Frigoris and Plato. But the submerged mountain ranges in Mare Imbrium were interesting - the Straight Range, Montes Teneriffe, Mons Pico and Montes Spitzbergen. These may be an inner ring of the impact basin of the Mare Imbrium?? (see refs below) | Above the old favourites Atlas and Hercules was dark Endymion and possibly Mare Humboldtianum?, with, I think, Strabo to the left. What I couldn't make out were the shining spots past Atlas - think they may be some of the Chevallier craters? Anyone know? |
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| In the light-flattened western moon, the Aristarchus Plateau still stood out, with Aristarchus itself brilliant. The swirl Reiner Gamma was also clear, though not as bright, with a line of pale material above it, near the Marius domes. But it was the Pre-Nectarian submerged Eddington crater which was new to me - with Struve and Russell on its western edge | There were no clear views for me here, but plenty of interest. Dark Grimaldi and lava-flooded Cruger(?) glowered, bright Sirsalis shone with, possibly, a bright spot on the edge of Darwin?? But there was a dark strip near the rim which might be Lacus Autumni, between the Montes Cordillera and Montes Rook on the edge of the Mare Orientale??? | Wider view of the area south of Grimaldi,
with Byrgius A (19 km) rays
brilliant and the dark Mare Humorum
with Gassendi washed out above.
Some fascinating places - though not seen at their best here - must try at a better time in a lunation, clouds permitting! |
March 14th - not looking good up here for the eclipse ....
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Who needs the Earth's shadow when we can have Pink Clouds |
rain, rain, rain! ... and more rain, sleet, cloud ...
March 6th - First quarter
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| Out of interest, here are a couple of shots made from stacking videos. Maurolychus here | And Sea of Serenity here! |
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| More from the 7-day moon as I haven't seen the moon since - rough idea of Apollo 11 landing site in Sea of Tranquillity | Again - roughly the site where Apollo 16 ran around in Lunar Rovers - more their findings on NASA site for Apollo 16 (thanks, Paolo, for link) |
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| I was a little early for the western rim of Serenity -
look for the different colours of lava.
The edges of the Caucasus mountains were still in shadow but the pale ray crossing Bessel could be seen Aristoteles (87 km) and Eudoxus (67 km) shone above the wrecked walled plain of Alexander (maybe formed 4 billion years ago?). |
Three seas together - Serenity, Tranquillity of
Apollo fame and the edge of battered Nectar.
The basin of Tranquillity formed before that of Nectar. Rocks brought back by Apollo suggest some lava in Tranquillity might be 3.7 billion years old ? |
One of my favourite lunar seas - Nectar - the basin
formed about 3.9 billion years ago, the lava flooding in millions of
years later.
Here you can see the Altai Scarp which is a south west rim of the Nectar basin |
| Further information and Sources for text: | Modern Moon by Charles Wood
Moon Observers Book/ the Moon by Peter Grego |
Geologic History of the Moon
by Don Wilhelms
see links for more detail |
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| The first quarter | |
March 5th - 6 day moon
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| Daytime views of Hommel ... Proclus and the Marsh of Sleep | Nectar ... Crisium - and the 'Cheshire cat's smile' with the Mare Marginis |
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| Daytime 6 day moon high in the south |
March 4th - 5 day moon
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| Earthshine still visible at 5 days. Moon high in sky, south near noon | Janssen and Rheita Valley prominent in south. |
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| Clear sky in afternoon - nipped the Tal out for a quick look - but the clouds spotted it | 5 day moon in the south in the sunshine - before the clouds ... |
March 3rd - oh dear! - snow for the 4 day moon
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| Blizzard in the west | Clear sky later - from 3rd floor! | Mist rising from ground ends session |
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| Crisium with the dark Mare Marginis creeping in - any bright spots, Brian?? | Pics shot from inside with Bresser | The Rheita valley starting to show |
March 2nd 2006 - 3 day moon
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| Clouds threatening - as usual | Beautiful 3 day moon in binocs | Terminator skimming Petavius and friends | Pics not good, through window but the Bresser viewing was better than binocs |
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| Good session - more later |
March 1st 2006 - moon just starting day 2
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| Sun on its way down just before 1700 UT - plane above leaves trail | Found the still 1 day+ moon (according to Moontool) in binoculars just before 18:00 UT. Hauled the Bresser up to 3rd floor to get better view | Found Mercury dodging clouds at around 18:30 UT - only 2nd time I've seen it, first chance to look through a scope at it (still saw no phase!!) | 2 day moon now showing earthshine, Mercury heading for trees and cloud bank - 18:40 from Bankok (or similar) appeared through the trees on the right, masquerading as a bright planet!! |
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| As the sky got darker, the earthshine was so bright you could see the dark maria in the west | Through the Bresser the craters were clear near the rim. Didn't have my moon maps - and had been down 3 flights for batteries and fresh card so wasn't going down again | Think this might show Gauss, up to the NE, through the 25mm Plossl and x3 Barlow (plus camera zoom) - large crater was clear in the Bresser - will have a retrospective look in the wonderful Virtual Moon Atlas later ... | The photos are not brilliant - through glass (must clean those windows!) but the Bresser worked well - has always been a problem to get a scope to the western skies - the Tal is not something to drag up 3 flights of stairs |
28th Feb 2006 - New Moon
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| 18:00 UT new moon goes down with the sun - somewhere in
the west - skies clear in the east ..... but
- and Leo rising with his galaxies in a couple of hours ... drat |
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| 03:45UT - moon just 3 hrs into new cycle - but not rising yet - summer triangle of Deneb, Vega and Altair shows off in the east |
