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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Sunday (05.04.09) marked the end of MoonWatch week, which for me has been a fun event to celebrate even if the weather has not always cooperated. On this occasion the promising blue evening sky had given way to the fog like veil of cirrostratus cloud later that night, which I would have cursed at any other time if it weren’t for the hazy lunar corona that it was helping to create.
With Regulus in Leo sitting just above the Moon I decided to use the Bresser 10×50s mounted on the tripod to make a wide field observation. Trying to identify the number of lunar objects that I could see at this magnification was also quite fun. Near the southern terminator I could partially discern the Mare Nubium while to the north I could easily make out the giant ray crater Copernicus and the Mare Imbrium. The vast bay of the Sinus Iridium and the dark, lava filled crater Plato were also clearly visible in and around this area.
Looking eastwards I had no problem observing the dark stains of the brightly lit Maria — this included the Mare: Serenitatis, Vaporum, Tranquillitatis, Crisium & Foecunditatis — while the bright rays of Langrenus and the outlines of Petavius as well as Furnerius were all visible. I also managed to catch (with some added scrutiny) the smaller ray craters Manilius, Menelaus and Proclus, all of which looked like minute pin-pricks of light against the lunar surface.
By the time I had finished making a preliminary sketch the cloud cover had grown just that little bit thicker. It looked more and more likely that a blanket of stratus would begin to roll in from the west quite soon so I was happy to have made the observation when I did. All in all I have to say that this short lunar jaunt was the perfect way to end the first MoonWatch week. The second MoonWatch week won’t take place until late October, just after Jupiter SkyWatch week — both of which I’m really looking forward to. In between then and now I’m hoping to complete the Binocular Messier Club list and make some headway with the Lunar 100, which is more than enough to keep this amateur astronomer busy for some time.
[Post edited: 07.04.09]
Tags: Bresser 10x50, Copernicus, Langrenus, Leo, Lunar Corona, Manilius, Mare Crisium, Mare Foecunditatis, Mare Nubium, Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Vaporum, Menelaus, Moon, MoonWatch, Petavius, Plato, Proclus, Regulus, Sinus Iridium
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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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