Wonderful pictures of western Mare Crisium and crater Picard on the Moon

West of Mare Crisium 101 frames at 90% best quality in Registax.



West of Mare Crisium 252 frames at 75% best quality in Registax.



Picard crater 356 frames at 80% best quality in Registax.

In these images, we see Mare Crisium basin with several craters and the mountainous region that forms the southwestern edge of the basin.


Under this illumination angle of the Sun, we see more standout wrinkles on Mare Crisium. These are called Dorsum Oppel (west), and Dorsum Termier, south. These wrinkles are not the only ones on this basin.


Crater Picard (23 km) in these images (better seen in picture 3), seems perfectly round (but oval because of its position on the east Moon), and it's not like that, because it has some edge loops, the highest being on the east. I never saw this crater so prominent like in these images.


Note the flooded crater Yerkes (36 km) located west of Picard, more to the edge of the Crisium basin. Its west wall is high, but as we look to the east, the wall becomes smaller, becoming almost nonexistent.


On the Crisium basin, also observe a crater located south of Yerkes, called Greaves (14 km), which looks like Picard, but smaller in size. Climbing up the edge of the basin, we see its shadow projected onto the plateau, becoming an adorable beauty view. On the western edge of the Crisium basin, are sprinkled more satellite craters of Glaisher (16 km) and Proclus (28 km).


  Continuing to the south of the basin, we see that the collar that surrounds the Mare Crisium is increasingly taller and lace. Here, we see the Thebbutt (32 km) crater, and also satellite craters of some which are on the basin, as Picard and Lick (31 km). The latter is not visible in the picture because is in shadow, south of Greaves.

Image are processed in Registax of a video from which were taken between 101 and 356 frames, merged to form a single image.

Age of the Moon: 17 days
Phase: 93% (0% = New, 100% = full)
Distance: 394.960 km

Optics: Celestron C8-Newtonian telescope, 20mm Plossl, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5) motorized
Camera: Sony CX130
Filter: no
Date: 31/12/2012
Location: Baia Mare, Romania
Processing: Registax, FastStone Image Viewer

Posted in: Craters-Proclus,Dorsum Oppel,Dorsum Termier,Gallery-Registax,Mare Crisium