Lunar craters through astronomical telescope. Apianus, Alascensis and Playfair.

I caught in these images craters in dim light located at the terminator. Most important in size, are Playfair G (94 km), Apianus (63 km), Aliacensis (80 km) and Playfair (48 km), the rest being smaller satellite craters of them. Located closest to the terminator is Aliacensis, and therefore its bottom is not available for observation being immersed in shadow. In the same situation is the crater Krusenstern (47 km) south of Playfair G.

Playfair G's floor is barely visible to the south of its inner south walls are illuminated by the sun, revealing small craters on them.
Lunar terminator, makes to be distinguished out more clearly how much Playfair crater is superimposed over Playfair G's east.

Apianus, it is also shady and about 3 quarters of its eastern wall, and what remains in light reveals a smooth floor. On the southeastern edge of the crater we can distinguish the small satellite crater, Apianus B (10 km).

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.

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Playfair and Krusenstern 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
Craters Apianus G Aliacensis and Werner, and Blanchinus, are the main craters of these photos, by size, located in south-central part of the Moon.
          Playfair (48 km), is a lunar crater located in the rugged highlands of the Moon's south side. It lies along the eastern edge of the satellite crater Apianus G, a formation that is almost twice the diameter of Apianus itself. Playfair is north of Apianus , and south-west of the pair of craters Abenezra-Azophi . Playfair is oval in shape, slightly higher along the east-west rim. The edge is eroded, and small craters are along its south and west. The interior is almost with no features, only a pair of small craters are just east of the midpoint.
The name comes from John Playfair (10.3.1748-20.7.1819), a scottish scientist and mathematician , professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University.

          Krusenstern (47 km), is attached to the southeast edge of Apianus G -in photos is attached to the east of Apianus G, and is along and north-east of the larger crater Werner. Krusenstern is a large circular crater and its walls reach a height of 1,600 meters. The interior is almost with no features, marked only by a few small craters. It dates from pre-nectarian era, 4.55 - 3.92 billion years ago.
It has the name of Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern (November 19, 1770 - August 24, 1846) which was a german explorer and admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy, who led the first circumnavigation of Earth.

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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

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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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List of Moon's center features. Astronomy lecture

Craters at the center of the lunar disk, as seen from the Earth, are the most visible because their entire structure is facing us, revealing the floors and their perfect detail, even with a modest telescope. On the center, there are many features, such as mountains, seas (mare) and large craters. Apenninus Mountains are easily spotted, and craters as Eratosthenes, Copernicus, the great crater Ptolemaeus but others that can be found in the lists below.

The craters on the Moon are named after great personalities of the branch of science such as astronomers, mathematicians, inventors and not only.

The results of the links may not have as title the craters, mountains or other features you are looking for, but in the content of the articles, those features are presented.


Craters of the Moon's center area.

Abulfeda
Agrippa
Almanon
Andel
Aratus
Albategnius
Alpetragius
Alphonsus
Argelander
Arzachel
Airy
Blagg
Bode
Bonpland
Bowen
Bruce
Bumham 
Cone
Conon
Copernicus
Davy
Delambre
Dembowsky
Dollond
Eratosthenes
Flammarion
Fra Mauro
Gambart
Gay Lussac
Godin
Gylden
Halley
Herschel
Hind
Hipparchus
Horrocks
Hyginus
Klein
Lade
Lalande
Lassell
Lindsay
Marco Polo
Mosting
Muller
Murchison
Oppilzer Pallas
Pallas
Palissa
Parrot
Pickering
Playfair
Ptolemaeus
Reamur
Reinhold
Rhaeticus
Ritchey
Saunder
Schroter
Seeliger
Sommering
Sporer
Stadius
Sulpicius Gallus
Taylor
Thebit
Triesnecker
Turner
Ukert
Vogel
Wallace


Seas of the Moon's center area.

Mare Vaporum
Mare Nubium
Mare Cognitum
Mare Insularum
Mare Imbrium


Mountains of the Moon's center area

Montes Apenninus
Montes Carpatus
Montes Riphaeus


Other forms of relief on the center area of the Moon.

Sinus Aestuum
Sinus Fidei
Sinus Medii
Lacus Felicitatis
Lacus Odii
Lacus Doloris
Promotorium Taenarium
Rupes Recta
Rimae Alphonsus
Rimae Ariadaeus
Rimae Bode
Rimae Vladimir
Rimae Bradley
Rimae Flammarion
Rimae Gay Lussac
Rimae Hadley
Rimae Hyginus
Rimae Oppolzer
Rimae Yangel
Rimae Parry
Rimae Reamur
Rimae Schroter
Rimae Sulpicius Gallus
Rimae Triesnecker

Space missions on the center area of the Moon.

Apollo 11
Apollo 12
Apollo 14
Apollo 15
Apollo 16
Apollo 17

Luna 5 (1965) USSR due to a malfunction, it crashed on the lunar surface.

Ranger 7 (1964) USA- intentionally crashed, and successfully sent 4308 images with a resolution of up to 0.5m.

Surveyor 3 (1967) USA has landed successfully transmitted images to Earth 6326.

Apollo 14 USA-Extravehicular Activity (EVA). On February 5, 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 landed on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro formation near Cone crater.


To see the photographic map of the center area of the Moon, view: Photographic map of the Moon: Center 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 buya better telescope.

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