On November the 5th 1605, a group of English Catholics were foiled in their attempt to assassinate King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Their plan had been to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the state opening, using 36 barrels of gunpowder, which would have killed the King and most of the Protestant nobility in the process. The man responsible for executing what became known as the Gunpowder Plot, because of his military and explosives experience, was Guy Fawkes.
Fortunately the conspirators’ plot unraveled and Guy Fawkes, who helped conceal the gunpowder barrels in a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament, was arrested a few hours before he planned to detonate them. Had he been successful in igniting the gunpowder, the explosion would have destroyed the Old Palace of Westminster completely and shattered the windows of the surrounding buildings within a 1 kilometer circumference. All of those involved in the conspiracy were quickly hunted down and dispatched one way or another.
The Gunpowder Plot passed from history into folk lore, but it’s defeat has resonated down through the centuries and has always been commemorated every year since by burning bonfires along with the setting off of fireworks. It was against this setting, with the scent of smoke from fading bonfires and spent fireworks, that I produced the rough graphite sketch of the Moon that you can see below.
Waning Gibbous Moon 05.11.09: Mouseover the image for more information.
If I’d been more organised I would have taken the time to make the disc of the moon far neater by using a template, but all in all the sketch still turned out okay. As this was a quick observation I decided to record the most obvious features across the surface of the Moon rather than get mired in the almost infinite details, but I’ll certainly be aiming for a far more in-depth study next time around. It’s just a pity that there won’t be any fireworks!
Tags: Apennine Mountains, Aristarchus, Aristoteles, Atlas, Bessel Ray, Brenner, Burg, Colombo, Copernicus, Cyrillus, Dawes, Eudoxus, Fabricius, Fracastorius, Grimaldi, Gutenberg, Hercules, Janssen, Kepler, Macrobius, Manilius, Mare Humorum, Mare Imbrium, Mare Nectaris, Mare Nubium, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Menelaus, Metius, Moon, Oceanus Procellarum, Plato, Plinius, Posidonius, Riccioli, Santbech, Sinus Iridium, Strathspey 25x100, Theophilus, Tycho
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It was a cold one early on Tuesday morning, but the plus side of this was that the sky was crystal clear. A white frost had settled on everything and there was not a cloud to be seen - fantastic observing weather. I haven’t done any work on my Messier list for around a week and I knew that there was little chance during this session. The moon was hanging high over the western horizon and it’s milky light was pervading nearly every part of the sky.
I had already decided before I started that I was going to spend nearly all of my time observing the moon, in particular the Mare Humorum ‘The Sea of Moisture’. Heading outside at around 00:54 UT, I set up the 25×100 binoculars on the tripod and turned them towards the glare of the lunar surface. I didn’t focus in the Mare Humorum just yet - I wanted to soak up the overall grandeur of the moon and take in some of the scenery.
My eyes immediately fell on the ray craters Kepler and Copernicus which looked spectacular as always. Plato, just north of the Mare Imbrium was clearly visible and I could easily see the small but brilliant ray craters Manilius and Menelaus in the south east over towards the Mare Vaporum and Mare Serenitatis. Moving north over the Mare Serenitatis I could make out the magnificent crater Posidonius sitting on the eastern coast of the ancient basin. Further south in the Mare Foecunditatis I could see the striking crater Langrenus lying almost on the eastern limb of the moon. From here I traveled down towards the southern lunar highlands and the outstanding ray crater Tycho where I could easily see the craters Scheiner and Blancanus lying just a little further south. Moving up from Scheiner and to the west of Tycho I landed on the odd and elongated crater of Schiller and finally the crater melange known as Hainzel. Heading northwards from here, the final stop was the Mare Humorum.
The most notable feature around the Mare Humorum aside from the Mare itself is the crater Gassendi lying on the northern shores of the impact basin. The original crater has all but been submerged with lava during the formation of the Mare meaning that the outer rim and the tips of the central peaks (which I could just see) are all that remain today. The smaller crater Gassendi A overlaps the northern rim of Gassendi while Gassendi B lies just to the north west beyond Gassendi A. The 25×100 binoculars readily made out the main crater Gassendi - Gassendi A was just visible while Gassendi B was just at the outer grasp of 25×100s and barely visible.
Heading southwards over the Mare I stopped to examine two smaller impact craters: Gassendi J and Gassendi O. Through the binoculars they really didn’t resemble craters at all but rather bright points of light but I was amazed that the 25×100s could pick them up.
Lying directly south of Gassendi lay three craters that were easily visible: the ancient Doppelmayer, the drowned crater Vitello M and the rugged Vitello. Doppelmayer at some point in the Moon’s past has been partially flooded with basaltic lava while little remains of the immersed Vitello M. My only set back here was my inability to observe crater Lee to the west of Vitello M and try as I might I just could not resolve it. Wandering from the southern shores of the Mare Humorum I let my eye’s drift east into the western fringes of the Mare Nubium and towards the prominent crater Bullialdus.
The crater itself looked extremely bright and I could just make out the faintest hints of the central peaks that rise up to a kilometer from the surface. West of Bullialdus lies the crater Agatharchides which on this occasion I failed to observe, however Agatharchides P and N were quite clear and well defined. Moving south from these small but pronounced lava flows I resolved Agatharchides A, a small satellite crater of the larger Agatharchides but unmistakable nontheless. To the south east of Agatharchides A I could readily see König, an isolated crater slightly larger than Agatharchides A and equally as bold. Ambling south beyond König I was also able to see Campanus and Mercator. Two reasonably defined craters located on the south western coast of the Mare Nubium. Both craters have at some period been flooded with basaltic lava sparing only the central peaks of Campanus and leaving Mercator completely featureless.
With most of my checklist fufilled I decided to call time on a very enjoyable lunar jaunt, but not before turning the 25×100s on Collinder 70 and Collinder 69 in Orion. Despite the glare from the Moon, both of these open clusters looked marvelous through the large binoculars and I spent the last ten minutes of my observation session gazing at these two fantastic objects. By now it was 02:00 UT and the freezing conditions really were setting in so I finally packed up the gear and headed indoors where I could happily thaw out.
Tags: Agatharchides, Agatharchides A, Agatharchides N, Agatharchides P, Blancanus, Bullialdus, Campanus, Collinder 69, Collinder 70, Copernicus, Doppelmayer, Gassendi, Gassendi A, Gassendi B, Gassendi J, Gassendi O, Hainzel, Kepler, König, Langrenus, Lee, Manillius, Mare Humorum, Mare Imbrium, Mare Nubium, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Vaporum, Menelaus, Mercator, Plato, Posidonius, Scheiner, Strathspey 25x100, Tycho, Vitello, Vitello M, Weather
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Inspired by my short lunar jaunt over as well as around the lava flows and craters of the Mare Imbrium last week, I thought it would be fun to produce a 3d map in Blender. Unlike the MOLA (Mars Orbilter Laser Altimeter) data that you can easily lay your hands on for producing renders in Blender and Terragen, no such lunar data is available for download as far as I am aware. This meant I was forced to improvise using a NASA photograph that I processed in Photoshop and then used to generate a height map in blender. It’s not 100% precise, but it’s a good enough facsimle so that the major landmarks can still be made out. Anyway, it was fun to produce and perhaps it might even be of some use.
Tags: Blender, Mare Imbrium, Moon
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November has been a fairly non existent month as far as observing goes. The weather has offered no real respite over the past two weeks and I seriously began to wonder if I’d ever see the stars again. So when the clouds finally broke up early this morning and allowed the crystalline sky to shine through I was pretty bowled over. I was so happy that I spent the best part of fifteen to twenty minutes just gazing up at the heavens unaided.
The waning moon was high in the south east and it’s glow curbed any kind of real DSO hunting, but I was more than happy to gaze at the variegated craters and Maria of the lunar surface. I was also looking forward to taking in a long awaited view of Saturn.
I always find something quite hypnotic about observing the moon - it has a phantasmal quality that always leaves me wondering if what I’m seeing is actually real. The 25×100 binoculars that I use are better suited to DSO hunting but they still serve to give good wide field views of the moon and bring out some remarkable detail. Concentrating my efforts on the Mare Imbrium in the northern hemisphere I began my observations above the Imbrium lava flows where I could see the large rimless crater Sinus Iridium. From here I traveled over to the north east to observe the ancient and mysterious crater Plato. The 17th Century astronomer Johannes Hevelius referred to this magnificent crater as ‘The Greater Black Lake’.
Moving a little further south from the Mare Imbrium, towards the terminator, I could see the large crater Archimedes with it’s two smaller companions Autolycus and Aristillus flanking it in the north east. Interestingly enough, the stretch of lunar surface between Autolycus and Archimedes is the final resting place of Luna 2 after the Soviet probe crash landed there in 1959. Just north from Aristillus, I could make out the small crater Piazzi Smyth and Mons Piton, a lone mountain that rises 2.3Km from the Mare Imbrium.
Lying just a little further east I could see the impressive Apennine Mountain range that extends a huge 600Km perimeter around the south eastern rim of the Mare Imbrium. Some of the peaks here rise 5Km from the lunar surface - the last two in the chain, Mons Hadley Delta and Mons Hadley form the valley where the Apollo 15 crew made their historic landing.
West from Apennine Mountains and Archimedes I observed the small but prominent impact crater named after the Greek astronomer and philosopher Timocharis of Alexandria (320BC - 260BC). A minor ray system surrounds Timocharis that places the age of the crater around one billion years old.
Traveling south west towards the eastern edge of the Oceanus Procellarum, the beautiful ray crater Copernicus, as always, offered a stunning sight. It’s complex ray system extending 800Km across the lunar surface. Turning north east of Copernicus, lying at the beginning of the Apennine Mountains sits the moderate sized crater Eratosthenes. The crater was believed to have formed around 3.2 billion years ago which marks the beginning of the lunar Erastosthenian epoch, hence the name of this crater.
Having contented myself with a short tour of the Mare Imbrium I cast my gaze on to a more distant world - Saturn. As I said earlier, my 25×100 binoculars are better suited to DSO observing than viewing planetary bodies but I thought I’d take the chance to observe the jewel of the solar system. While the view was not the best one that I have ever seen, I can at least say that I have managed to take in this year’s first Saturnian observation.
As this graceful giant rose over the eastern horizon, I could just make out the faint traces of the rings that encircle the planet and are presently almost facing edge on to us at the current time. As for viewing any of Saturn’s moons, the orange sodium haze that comes from living near an oil refinery, several large towns and the incoming misty clouds combined to reduce the percieved sky transparency. So I was bang out of luck - this time.
Tags: Apennine Mountains, Archimedes, Aristillus, Autolycus, Erastosthenian Epoch, Eratosthenes, Luna 2, Mare Imbrium, Mons Hadley, Mons Hadley Delta, Mons Piton, Moon, Oceanus Procellarum, Piazzi Smyth, Plato, Saturn, Sinus Iridium, Strathspey 25x100, Timocharis
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