01/08/2006 Observation of Moon

Object: MOON
Deepsky Catalog: Planets
Log Type: Default
Date Observed: 1/9/2006
Time Observed: 04:30UT
Locate Method: Computerized Scope
Observing Location: Xanadu Observatory
Object Rating: A+
Primary Equipment Used: Meade RCX400 14" f/8 356 08.0
Power/Magnification Used: 237
Transparency/Seeing: Deepsky Clear / Deepsky Mostly Stable
Detailed Observing Notes:
Came back for some more serious lunar study.

First, I simply observed the moon naked-eye. I identified the following Maria - large plains that some ancients thought were oceans:

-Mare Crisium

-Mare Fecunditatus

-Mare Nectaris

-Mare Tranquilitatis ("The Sea of Tranquility" - including the Apollo 11 landing site, Tranquility Base)

-Mare Serenitatis

-Mare Vaporum

These maria form the neck, head, and earsof the Rabbit in the Moon.

When I was a kid I had a glow-in-the-dark superball that looked like the moon, it had all sorts of craters on it, and the Seas were all labelled. Wonder if I still have it somewhere, man I thought that thing was cool!

After switching to the eyepiece, I decided that my son was right - too many craters to count. I decided to attempt some imaging with the Meade LPI, despite the poor seeing. The image was really swimming around so I won't even bother trying to stack them. The attached picture shows the region around the prominent crater Tycho, which is the one with the large central peak. This was a .23 second single image with no dark subtraction or other processing - simply saved it to a jpeg file.