Astronomical telescope images. Lunar craters. Heraclitus and Stofler.

This is a landscape little difficult to see, but at the same time raise the interest for a more detailed investigation of these lunar features.

For example, Stofler crater made me curious when I saw in this light. Its shape is much sharper now that is flooded darkness. This form is actually composed of two craters: Stofler (126 km) and Faraday (70 km). What seems unique from all other moments when I caught this crater is the small crater sitting on the edge of Stofler called Stofler F (18 km). The Shadow that makes Stofler not be circular. These craters are actually Faraday, and left and right Faraday A (21 km) and C (30 km).

 Heraclitus and Licetus (90/75 km) are two stuck together craters, but they are more complex than you think. The shape can confuse you because these are some overlapping craters.
 Heraclitus,  is a complex crater and is located in rugged mountainous areas south of the Moon.The crater is 90 kilometers in diameter and 3.8 kilometers deep. Licetus is combined with Heraclitus and form the southern end.  Cuvier is at west and north is Lilius.

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 is made in 10 February 2011.

Image of 9 February 2011.

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South Moon craters in shadow-Lilius crater

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony CX105
Filter: No
Date: 10/02/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: 10 Sony Vegas, video captures

        In this article are photos of Moon craters in shadow from the southern region . Most are presented in other articles, such as Jacobi, Kinau, Zach and Curtius, Pentland and Scott, Sempilius, Schomberger, and Scott.

         Lilius crater (61 km) lies north of the crater Zach, and south-west  of Cuvier. South-east is slightly larger Jacobi. The interior is relatively flat with no features, but there is a high peak on central midpoint.
The crater is named after the inventor of the Gregorian calendar, Aloysius Lilius (1510-1576), also known as Lilio Luigi, Luigi Giglio, or Lilio Baldassare, who was an italian doctor, astronomer, philosopher and chronologist.

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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.

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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.

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Craters of the Moon Crater Heraclitus Pictures by telescope.

138 video frames, in Registax.

229 video frames, in Registax.

25 video frames, in Registax.

The south of the Moon is full of countless craters, where large basins of lava are missing. Craters Heraclitus and Licetus (90/75 km) are some of seen in these images processed in Registax.
Heraclitus is a crater divided into two, over the edges of which are being overlapped two craters: to the south, Heraclitus D (52 km) and to the north, Licetus, Heraclitus being located between the two.

In the picture below you can identify each crater including satellite craters in this area. We enumerate here craters as Lilius (61 km), Cuvier (75 km), Zach (71 km) and Jacobi (68 km).

In this area, no manned missions were carried out due to highlands, but only over large areas such as basaltic lava basins that are much smoother, and which can tell us much more about the composition of the Moon.

Heraclitus crater is named after Heraclitus of Ephesus (535 -. C. 475 BC). He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor.

229 video frames, in Registax.

Moon Age: 9.05 days
Phase: 70.5% (0% = New, 100% = Full)
Distance: 399.221 km

Optics (telescope or lenses): Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, eyepiece 20mm Plossl, 2x barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 10/03/2014
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: Registax,  FastStone Image Viewer

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Moon through telescope. Heraclitus and Licetus craters.

Heraclitus and Licetus (90/75 km) are two stuck together craters, but they are more complex than you think. The shape can confuse you because these are some overlapping craters. From what I can tell, Heraclitus is the oldest of them. If you remove craters are overlapped over it, you will see that this is a circular crater affected by many small impacts. Over it, were held two impacts: one to the north that formed the crater Licetus, and one to the south, called Heraclitus D (52 km). Images are upside down for better observation.

Circular crater to the southeast of Heraclitus, the Cuvier (75 km), which is sticking to the edge of Heraclitus.

Image for orientation from 29 April, 2012..

Moon Age: 9.05 days
Phase: 70.5% (0% = New, 100% = Full)
Distance: 399.221 km

Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, 20mm Plossl, 2x barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 10/03/2014
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: FastStone Image Viewer

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Pentland Scott and Demonax-Moon craters

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony CX105
Filter: No
Date: 10/02/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: 10 Sony Vegas, video captures

In both top and bottom photos are craters Boguslawsky, Manzinus and Mutus, in the first photo are Pentland (56 km), Sempilius A, Scott (108 km) and Demonax (114 km) ,Schomberger (85 km) and Boussingault (131 km) .

Pentland (56 km), is a Moon impact crater on the south regions, and it appears distorted when viewed from Earth. Sempilius A is neighbor to the south, and Manzinus at east. On the rim of this crater is a depression along the southern edge,on which is attached a small crater on the outside. The inner wall keeps some untouched structures. The interior shows an elongated central increase in the midpoint. The floor is almost with no features, except for some small craters.
Crater name comes from Joseph Barclay Pentland (1797 - 12th July 1873) which was an Irish geographer and natural scientist. Born in Ireland, was educated at Pentland. He also studied in Paris and worked with Georges Cuvier.

Scott (108 km) is a crater near the south pole of the Moon. The northern side of the crater is in continuous darkness, and has not been mapped in detail. Scott is between similar-sized crater Amundsen  in the southeast and Schomberger northwest . In the northeast is Demonax.The placement of Scott and Amundsen crater on the south pole , refers to two antarctic explorers, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, in their race to be the first people to reach the south pole of the Earth.

Demonax (114 km) is in a difficult location to be watched.Demonax crater lies north of Scott. To the northwest is the crater Boguslawsky.The floor was renewed, leaving it flat. However, there is a group of central peaks near the middle.
The name comes from Demonax (Greek: Δημώναξ, Dēmōnax, 70-170) who was a philosopher born in Cyprus. He moved to Athens, known for his wisdom and talent for resolving disputes.This brought him the admiration of the citizens.

Schomberger (85 km) is located near the southern edge of the Moon. The younger satellite Schomberger A (31 km) is attached to the southern rim and Schomberger C (43 km), much older, just outside western edge. Crater is a relatively well defined, with sharp features and was not significantly affected by impacts. Edge is approximately circular with an inner wall complex marked by increased peaks and several terraces. Interior floor is relatively flat. At the midpoint of the interior is a complex of central peaks.
Boussingault (131 km). The most notable aspect of this crater is the large crater that is entirely within its outer walls, so that it resembles a double-wall formation. Outer edge is affected by other impacts and Boussingault K (29 km), is located in north-western edge. To the northwest there is also a formation of craters superposed: Boussingault E (98 km), B (54 km) and C (24 km).
Crater name comes from Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (February 2 1802- 11 May, 1887) which was a french chemist who has made a significant contribution to the science of agriculture, oil and metallurgical science.

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