Beautiful large crater Janssen filmed with amateur astronomical telescope

The large crater Janssen (190 km) is filmed in this video through 8-inch astronomical telescope on which I attached a HD camcorder. Clarity is one of the best so far of this crater. The image is inverted as seen through the telescope and I left it so, considering that these are south craters. You would not want to see the lunar craters upside down and not allowing you to notice the complexity of the crater in all its splendor.

Note the deep arched line on the floor of Janssen, called Rima Janssen. Do not confuse Janssen crater with a small crater named Jansen with a single "s", which is located southeast of the crater Plinius, on Mare Tranquillitatis.

Note also the margins of this crater, affected by numerous subsequent impacts. Crater Fabricius (78 km), and Fabricius A, are inside of Janssen, and these two forms its eastern edge. Stuck byFabricius, it is old crater, Metius (88 km), because the eastern edge of Fabricius, is superimposed over that of Metius.

In this area there were not organized Apollo missions, probably because the affected land which is dangerous for a safe landing. If you see where Apollo missions took place, you will find that they were held on low depressions, near, or on large basins called "mare".

   Janssen, with a diameter of 190 km, and 2.9 km in depth, competes with Clavius​​, which has a diameter of 225 km, and a depth of 3.5 km, situated also on the southern Moon.




Optics: CelestronC8 "-Newtonian telescope, plossl20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5) motorized
Device: Sony CX-130
Video mode: Full HD progressive 1920x1080
Filter: no
Date: 31/12/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing and editing: Sony Vegas 10

Read more »

Craters on the Moon Astro Images: Rheita and Metius.

It is difficult for the camera to capture moonscape when the sun is at a wide angle, but I chose meticulously several relevant sequences, in which the craters of this south-west area are clearer.

On Rheita crater (70 km), we can observe some important features, one being the central peak. To the south is superimposed over a valley 200 km long, called Vallis Rheita.
In the area where the valley ends, is crater Young.

Northeast of Rheita, an unusual crater is visible, with an elongated shape that reminds us of Schiller crater on the south-west of the Moon. This is a satellite crater called Rheita E (66x32 km).

Metius (88 km), is stuck to Fabricius (78 km), which is framed by huge crater Janssen (190 km).

Fabricius is interesting because the interior floor and wall are special. On the floor there is a mountainous formation located centrally and on the eastern side there is a beautiful arched mountainous belt that creates the impression that Fabricius has a double border to the east.

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.

Read more »

Janssen Crater and Rimae. Astronomical photographs through telescope

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, plossl 20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony CX105 to 8x optical zoom
Total Magnification: 800x
Filter: no
Date: 08/16/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: video capture, FastStone Image Viewer

Janssen, 196 km, is a large old and highly degraded crater. The northern wall was destroyed by subsequent impacts. It was heavily bombed during the time by many smaller impacts. The famous Rima Janssen is very obvious in pictures. Along the outer wall, there are numerous holes and openings, but the crater profile can still be observed with a semi-hexagonal shape, with a slight curve on the north-west. Janssen also frames Fabricius crater with a diameter of 80 km, more younger than Janssen and its central peak with a height of 2500 m.The trio closes with Metius crater, but tangential to the outer edge of Janssen.

Rima Janssen is visible on the floor, a crack that starts from Fabricius to the center of the crater, and then curves right to the edge of the southeast oj Janssen.

The picture below is for guidance, and is reversed, as seen through a telescope.

Above are images processed in Registax.

Read more »

Moon craters - astronomy pictures through telescope

All these pictures are made on 09.02.2011 and I decided to post all of them in a single article

Piccolomini crater (88 km.) in the center pf the photo,and Rupes Altai is the rim that goes down below the crater.(photo above and below)

Apianus G is in the center.Above Apianus G, on right is Apianus (63 km),and on left is Playfair (48 km.)

Aliacensis (80 km.) is on the right of picture,and Werner (70 km.) below it.

Aristoteles (87 km.)-the bigest one, and Euxodus (67 km.)-below.

Hommel and Pitiscus craters-are on center-lower of the photo above

Craters aligned from left to right: Rheita E (the elonged one),Rheita(70 km.),Metius (88 km.) and Fabricius (78 km.)

Crater Janssen (190 km.)-the big one on the left-down,Vlacq (89 km.) and Rosenberger (96 km.) on right

The two craters combined in the center are Watt (66 km.) and Steinheil (67 km.) below it.

Barocius (82 km.) on right-center.Under, is in shadow, Maurolycus (114 km.)

Rupes Altai is the mountain chain-up from left to right.On the right in photo is Zagut (84 km.)

Dalambre Crater (52 km.) which is in the center, beneath is Taylor A and Taylor (41x34 km.)

On the Mare Tranquillitatis are Plinius crater (43 km.) is in left-center, Ross (26 km.) south-east of Plinus, and Arago at the bottom left.

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: Sony Vegas 10 Registax

Read more »

Janssen crater

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian reflector telescope, 20mm plossl, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony HDR CX105
Filter: No
Date: 09/02/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: video capture
      Janssen crater (190 km.), is the largest in the bottom left in photo.
      Janssen is an old impact crater located in the high region in the south-east of the Moon. The entire structure was heavily hit by more impacts. The outer wall is divided in several locations, but the outline of the crater can still be observed. The wall forms a distinctive hexagonal shape on the lunar surface.
       Fabricius crater (78 km.) lies entirely in Janssen's western wall. A number of other smaller craters, but noticeable marks the crater floor. On the south-east wall is a smaller crater Lockyer (34 km.), Lockyer F and D, all three shot to the east line of Janssen.
       Janssen crater name is given by the famous french Jules Janssen, an astronomer who, along with the english scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is responsible for the discovery of helium gas.

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 »

Rheita and Metius craters

Photographer: Victor Lupu
Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian reflector telescope, 20mm plossl, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: Sony HDR CX105
Filter: No
Date: 09/02/2011
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: video capture
      Craters aligned to the top of the photo from left to right: Rheita E ( elongated), Rheita (70 km.) Metius (88 km.) and Fabricius (78 km.)
       Rheita E, the left and elongated in the picture, has a shape similar to another crater in my opinion ,is about Schiller crater, but Rheita is like in miniature.      Rheita -the next one,is an impact crater located in the south-west of the Moon. . Eastern edge overlaps with Rheita Vallis, a valley stretching over 200 kilometers.

Below is the east surface of the Moon to help localize the craters.

Read more »