Craters on the Moon. Maurolycus Barocius and Clairaut.

This area has three craters categories: large, medium and small. Maurolycus is the largest of them. Light falling on these craters on the night of January 30 greatly advantaged image quality.

The floor of Maurolycus (114 km) is very well revealed to our eyes. This is a complex crater and has several outstanding features such as the peak of the center, Maurolycus J small crater (9 km) and one on the southern edge, Maurolycus A (15 km). Interesting to note, a second rim from south west is an extension of Maurolycus. This rim is a reminder of another crater over which overlapped Maurolycus.

Clairaut (75 km) is also a complex crater (but on a smaller scale) because it is composed of many overlapping craters on its edge: Clairaut A (36 km), B (43 km) and S (22 km).

We can not see the floors of Heraclitus and Licetus (90/75 km), at this phase of the moon, but only their outline.
Other craters seen here are Baco (69 km) and Cuvier (75 km).

Baco (69 km), is a lunar impact crater that lies in rugged mountainous areas of the south, on the near side of the Moon. The rim and the inner wall were eroded and affected by countless minor impacts from the initial formation of the crater. As a result, all terraces have been affected harmoniously, and the rim is covered by several small craters. Interior floor is almost flat, with no central characteristic peak at the midpoint.

Magnitude: -10.82
Phase: 0.46
Distance: 399.283 km
Illuminated: 45.6% (0% = New, 100% = Full)

Astronomical instrument: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope,
Eyepiece: Plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 30.01.2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: FastStone Image Viewer

In the picture below are labeled craters and other lunar features in the region. To better understand this photo, you should note that the label with the name or the letter of larger craters could be found at their center, and on the small craters, you should find them around them, usually above.

The image above was done in 12 February 2011.

Read more »

List of south features of the Moon-Southern lunar Hemisphere

Southern hemisphere of the Moon is in rough terrain, heavily cratered and with mountainous areas.
At the poles, the sun is always at small angles, so this is creating a unique environment, but also some difficulties in interpreting the geological region.
The southern hemisphere of the Moon craters are very different in size, appearance and how they were formed by impacts in the past.
Personally, the most interesting craters on south, I find Tycho, a crater with rays showing a very high albedo, rays that are left behind from the initial impact, wich can be seen from Earth with the naked eye or binoculars.
Another great crater is Clavius​​, a large crater with other small craters lying inside it in a decreasing order to form a spiral.
Shiller is another crater, interesting to me because of its elongated shape similar to a caterpillar.
 On the southern hemisphere of the Moon seen from Earth, there is only a sea, Mare Nubium that penetrate down to the crater Pitatus.

There are not mountains on the Moon's southern hemisphere. Maybe were probably destroyed by countless impacts were.

Most notable craters of the Moon southern hemisphere, in alphabetical order, are:

Aliacensis
Apianus
Asclepi
Baco
Ball
Barocius
Biela
Blanchinus
Boguslawsky
Bosching
Boussingault
Brown
Buch
Casatus
Cichus
Clairaut
Clavius
Curtius
Cuvier
Cysatus
Deluc
Demonax
Deslandres
Fabricius
Faraday
Fernelius
Frisius
Gauricus
Gemma
Gruemberger
Hagecius
Heinsius
Hell
Helmholtz
Heraclitus
Hommel
Jacobi
Janssen
Kaiser
Kinau
Klaproth
Lexell
Licetus
Lilius
Longomontanus
Maginus
Manzinus
Maurolycus
Metius
Miller
Montanari
Moretus
Mutus
Neander
Nearch
Neumayer
Newton
Nonius
Orontius
Pentland
Picret
Pitatus
Pitiscus
Playfair
Poisson
Pontanus
Pontecoulant
Proctor
Rabbi Levi
Rheita
Riccius
Rosenberger
Sasserides
Saussure
Sempilius
Short
Scheiner
Schiller
Schomberger
Scott
Steinheil
Stofler
Tannerus
Tycho
Vlaq
Watt
Weiss
Werner
Wilhelm
Wurzelbauer
Zach


Seas:
Mare Nubium

Space missions on the south side of the Moon:
Ranger 9 was launched on March 24, 1965 by United States of America and was intentionally crashed on the lunar surface, on crater Alphonsus.
Ranger 9 was designed to achieve an impact trajectory and to transmit pictures of the lunar surface in high-resolution during the flight until the impact.
  Ranger 9 successfully transmitted 5814 images with a resolution of up to 1.5 m.

LCROSS United States launched the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) which was deliberately crashed into the Moon's south pole on crater Cabeus on October 9, 2009
The mission was designed to search for water ice on the lunar surface and examining the resulting cloud, caused by impact. The mission ended with the discovery of significant amounts of water.

Moon Impact Probe was launched by India, and it was deliberately crashed on 14 November 2008 at the lunar south pole.
 It had 35 kg, and was released from Chandrayaan-1 Lunar Orbiter. It was equipped with a video camera, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer.

Video: Victor Lupu
Optics: CelestronC8 "-Newtonian telescope, plossl20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: SonyCX105 at 7x optical zoom
Total Magnification: 700x
Filter: no
Date: 16/08/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing and editing: Sony Vegas 10

To see the photographic map of the south area of the Moon, view: Photographic map of the Moon: South Zone. Lunar Atlas.

For those who like my astro pictures or my articles, it woul be great if you could pay attention on advertising that appear in the blog by a click and maybe one day I could buy a better telescope.

Read more »

Stöfler Maurolycus and Barocius craters

Stöfler and Maurolycus Registax 80 frames 90% lowest quality.                                                                  -click to enlarge

Stöfler and Maurolycus Registax 32 frames 100% lowest quality.                                                                    -click to enlarge

Stöfler and Maurolycus Registax 14 frames 100% lowest quality.                                                                       -click to enlarge

Stöfler and Maurolycus Registax 78 frames 95% lowest quality.                                                                                                    

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian reflector telescope, plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony HDR CX105
Filter: No
Date: 09/02/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: Registax

        Stöfler (126 km) is a large lunar crater located in the mountainous areas south of the Moon.It is named after Johannes Stöffler. It is located west of Maurolycus (east on the photo). A distorted crater, Fernelius is attached to the edge of the south and at east are Nasireddin and Miller (not visible in photos). Faraday (70 km), is a damaged crater located at the northwestern edge of Stöfler.
     Stöfler's edge is eroded, but the outline remains relatively intact except for the region where it overlaps with Faraday crater (75 km). The crater located north of Stöfler is Licetus .
    Craters Maurolycus and Barocius (114-82 km) are located west of Stöfler.

          Barocius (82 km.) is an ancient lunar crater that is located in the southern highlands of the Moon. In north it lies Maurolycus. In the north-east of Barocius is Clairaut.
Barocius's edge has been eroded by many subsequent impacts. The most notable, Barocius B, which is located in west side of Barocius, and mingle with the Barocius C. A remnant of a crater, Barocius W , is inside Barocius .
Crater is the name given by Francesco Barozzi (9 August 1537 - 23 November 1604) who was an italian mathematician, astronomer and humanist.

                 Maurolycus (114 km.) , is one of the most prominent craters in the southern highlands of the Moon. To the north is the crater Barocius.
Crater name is given from Francesco Maurolico (16 September 1494-21 July 1575. He has worked in the fields of mathematics, geometry, optics, mechanics, music, and astronomy.
     

Read more »