Moon: Day 10 - \”Gassendi\’s Tease\”
Published on 26 Aug 2004 at 12:59 am.
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The waxing gibbous Moon continues to drift low across my southern sky. Tonight, it is a full 28 degrees east of the red star of Antares and 3 degrees southwest of Nunki in Sagittarius. It is observed at 91x at an age of 10 days and 2 1/2 hours very near 11:00pm, CDT. At this magnification, you can see the lunar terminator at 37.5 degrees west longitude, just atop the crescent of the Jura Mountains to the north. The inside of this mountain crescent is bright with high relief now, but it\’s shadow actually adds to the retreating lunar night. Crater Bianchini is almost all shaded within, minus its interior west wall. Crater Philolaus (71 km) is the furthest north recognized because of its high-relief and similar amount of shading within. Small crater Encke is seen currently as a white-rimmed \”inkwell\” west of Copernicus, just freed of the cold night. The Montes Riphaeus appears as a folded over dorsum southwest of Copernicus, and crater Lansberg, now in daylight, shows only 1/3 of its interior in darkness. Daylight is beginning to spill onto Mare Humorum, and just the elevated eastern rim of crater Gassendi teases us with its illumination shortly beyond the terminator. Hints of Gassendi A give away its identity. No more hiding until the waning crescent phase! Go south of here to see the craters of Hainzel and Mee. The former is deep (4430 m) and has all its interior in shadow. Also, it appears fused by shadowing to shallower Mee, which has a patch of sunlight on its western floor. The eastern interior rim of Clavius still has a small amount of darkness against it, and the much oval looking craters of Scheiner and Blancanus to its southwest have considerable darkness within, much more so for Scheiner. Near midnight tomorrow, Gassendi should steal the show, and Mersenius and Aristarchus will appear at the terminator very near 50 degrees west longitude. Now who dares to say the Moon is a \”lemon\” in the sky?