Alphonsus crater on the moon through astronomical telescope.

Alphonsus crater (108 km), although it has a "disordered" edge, keeps its shape round. Through a telescope, he and the surrounding craters can be seen in all their splendor, because are located facing Earth, and therefore all their floor is exposed to the observer.

Alphonsus is one of the three craters forming a trio on the lunar surface: Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel, trio arranged from north to south, with a decreasing their size, in the order that I've mentioned above.

 So Alphonsus is located in the middle, and is unlike any of the other two craters. Note that each of craters that form the trio, is different from the other: Ptolemaeus is wide (153 km), with a smooth floor, lacking of a central peak, Alphonsus has a more random appearance compared with Ptolemaeus, and shows a peak in the center, and Arzachel (97 km) is a crater similar to Copernicus in appearance, being deep, with a central peak and terraced beautiful interior walls.

Moon age: 7 days
Stage: 51% (0% = New, 100% = Full)
Distance: 384.488 km

Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, 20mm Plössl, 2x barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 29/04/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: video capture, FastStone Image Viewer

Above, is an older photo with labels on the craters.

Posted in: Craters-Ptolemaeus Alphonsus and Alpetragius