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 »

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 »

Steinheil and Watt (pictures with Moon craters 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 captures, FastStone Image Viewer

Steinheil (67 km), and Watt (66 km) are observed in the images above and below, craters that are close together and have the same diameter, with a difference by only 1 km.
It is not difficult to understand, that Steinheil is slightly newer than Watt, as he "rides" it on the second one to the northern boundary (the image is reversed).
Both craters have no peaks in the center, only a few small craters on their floor barely visible.

Steinheil crater name is given from Carl August von Steinheil (October 12, 1801 - September 14, 1870) which was a german physicist, inventor, engineer and astronomer.
The name of Watt crater comes from James Watt (January 19, 1736 - August 25, 1819), a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer.

Read more »

Boussingault and Helmholtz craters.Telescope Pictures

In the above images are seen two large craters at the lunar south pole. These are Boussingault of 131 km and 3.2 km depth, and Helmholtz which is 94 km diameter but its depth is still unknown. Another crater which is covered in darkness here, but close to the terminal and the Moon as seen from Earth, is Neumayer 76 km in diameter.

In front of Boussingault are its satellite craters that have located in the image above. These are:

Boussingault E (98 km)

Boussingault B (54 km)

Boussingault C (24 km)

Undo editsAbout crater Helmholtz features we have not talked about yet.
Its outer edge is worn and rounded, but not significantly. Edge can still be seen around the perimeter, although several small craters lies along the inner edge. Such a crater is located on the southeast interior wall, and a pair of them occupies the opposite wall inside the northeast. There are also a number of small craters in the north.

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 captures, FastStone Image Viewer

Read more »

Vega crater and Vallis Rheita. Telescope images

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 captures, FastStone Image Viewer

         Vega (76 km) is an eroded lunar crater and can be seen from Earth even if is located at the Moon's terminal. Southeast of Vega is Peirescius a slightly smaller crater and to the west is the crater Reimarus and the long Vallis Rheita.

Vega crater which is 2.9 km deep, was bombarded and eroded by a long history of impacts. Vega B (30 km), overlaps the southern part of the floor. On the north-eastern edge overlapses with a pair of small craters. The rest of the floor has no features except a few small craters.

 Crater name is given in honor of baron Jurij Bartolomej Vega (Georgius Bartholomaei Vecha)-March 23, 1754 - September 26, 1802, which was a mathematician, physicist and artillery officer.

         Vallis Rheita is a linear valley situated south-east of the Moon, and is oriented to Mare Nectaris. This valley seems to share a common origin with Vallis Snellius which lies to the north-east, because both are orientated in the same direction.
Valley is  445 km long, and a width of about 30 km, but narrows to 10 km to the extreme southeast. It is the longest valley on the Moon, being exceeded only by Vallis Snellius.

       Vallis Rheita was eroded by a series of impacts, and more notable craters are located along this valley. Near the end of the northwest is the crater Rheita, like this valley was also named. Further to the southeast is the crater Young (72 km), almost centered in the valley. Young D (46 km) is located near the valley, but less ,deformed.Further, to the southeast are craters Mallet (58 miles), and Reimarus (48 km). Satellite crater  Mallet D (42 km), is also covering part of the valley.

For those who like my articles or the images through my telescope, would be nice to pay attention on advertising that appear in the blog by a click, because it is the only way I could buy one day a better telescope.

Read more »

Astronomy:Plus-South Moon Craters (Video)

The clip shown here was stabilized, amd in it we can see craters  like Longomontanus, Scheiner and Blancanus. At the top is the large crater Clavius​​. This is not one of the best clips of the south Moon craters, but is an addition to the others, an addition to a collection of videos through a telescope.



Optics: CelestronC8 "-Newtonian telescope, plossl20mm, 2x Barlow
Mount: CG5 (EQ5)
Device: SonyCX105 at 7x optical zoom
Total Magnification: 700x
Video resolutiob: 1920x1080
 Filter: no
Date: 14/05/2011
Location: BaiaMare, Romania
Processing and editing: Registax 6, FastStone

Read more »

Nearch and Hagecius craters-amateur telescope images

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 captures, FastStone Image Viewer

Picture above is for guidance and I made ​​it on November 4, 2010, which is now a year and a month.
Nearch and Hagecius are craters situated on the south side of the Moon.

Read more »

Demonax crater. Pictures of Moon through the 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 captures, FastStone Image Viewer

 

Demonax (114 km), is a large crater with a depth of 3.9 km, located near the lunar South Pole, and has a relatively comparable size with the nearby crater Boussingault (131 km), which is partially visible in the images above.
 In the photos in this article, the floor of Demonax crater is not visible because the Moon inclination in 16 August did not allow this. This is also because the Sun was on a small angle.

 

We need to know that the Moon does not have its own fixed axis, but is leaning forward and backward within a month, making craters in some periods to not always be seen the same.This phenomenon is called wobble.

 

 For example, these craters are on the south of the Moon, and we can not see the floor of Demonax (as in the old photo below of 10 February), this means that the northern Moon craters are more visible, even more craters on Moon's North terminal. This means that in August 16th, the Moon was inclined forward.

 

Other craters of these photos are Boguslawsky and Manzinus.

 

                      Picture of the craters on the Moon's south pole, made on 10 February 2011.

Read more »