Hello everyone,
Local weather has been abysmal over the last three
weeks. Rain and heavy overcast
conditions killing off any chance of scope time. This last Sunday saw a break in this weather
pattern, and I had an opportunity to visit the Moon again.
First inspection of the Moon threw up a wonderful trio
combination of craters formed by Theophilus, Cyrillus & Catharina (south is
to the top of the work). The image they
presented close to the terminator was most striking. Little did I know of what lay ahead of me. What I thought would be an ‘easy’ cruise was
to turn into a marathon effort at the eyepiece.
These three large craters are very busy places. They are riddled with younger imapacts,
criss-crossed with rilles, damaged and worn with age. The actual amount of detail only slowly became
apparent as the sketch developed and the observation time increased.
All three craters are very ancient. All three have flooded floors, with Catharina’s
(the oldest) central peak completely
covered over, Cyrillus’ central peak just managing to poke through, and Theophilus’
being the least flooded. The ghostly image
of the ray system radiating out from Theophilus is still visible across the
plains of Mare Nectaris, and Sinus Asperitatus to the north. These plains are heavily pock-marked with
thousands of small craters
The longer the sketch when on, the more detail I saw, and
the longer the process went on. What I
had anticipated as a two hour sketch went on for more than three hours. The level of detail is astounding, and
beautiful. While I was cramping up, and
my seat becoming less comfortable, I just could not stop nor reduce the amount
of detail I was putting down.
Then, a little surprise popped up. I spotted a curious looking little ‘crater’
just off the northern rim of Catharina.
The trailing shadow of the rim of this little crater looked way too long
for it to be a normal crater. The length
of the shadow implied a much taller rim wall.
It just could not be a crater.
The only thing it could be was a volcano. I always examine my Moon atlas’s after
completing a piece to check names and features.
Principle of the atlas’s I use is “Virtual Moon Atlas” (VMA). VMA confirmed my suspicion of the unusual nature
of this ‘crater’ as being a volcano!
Woo-hoo! ‘Catharina 2’ is its
official designation. Catharina 1 is to
the south east of Catharina, but it is not as prominent as ‘2’, and in the
sketch is lost in the noise of the surrounding small craters.
Another surprise presented itself along the terminator, with
the lesser known brother to ‘The Straight Wall’ escarpment made its presence
known with the brilliantly illuminated eastern facing wall of Rupes Altai. Unlike The Straight Wall, Rupes Altai is
serpentine in nature. Rupes Altai is
close to 500km long, nearly five times longer than its straight brother, and
has an average height three times taller too.
This piece was an exquisite exercise for me. The amount of detail revealed to me was
fabulous. Detail that is just not
visible without extensive observation time spent on the area. I ended up being dashed on the rocky shore line
of Mare Nectaris, beaten up due to my complacency. And now all the happier for it.
I really hope you enjoy this piece as much as I’ve enjoyed
producing it!
Object: Western Shore
of Mare Nectaris: Theophilus, Cyrillus & Catharina
Telescope: C8, 8” SCT
Gear: 8mm LVW, 250X
Date: 31st
August, 2014
Location: Sydney,
Australia
Media: Soft pastel,
charcoal & white ink on black paper
My original art work and prints of them can be purchased through Gondwana Telescopes, www.gondwanatelescopes.com
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