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Old 22-11-2013, 06:04 AM
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venus (Lydia)
AstroNan

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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 685
Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro View Post
Hi all,

It's been a long time since I've been able to do a sketch. Work and the weather conspiring as usual. Tonight I took a chance. The Moon was still boiling in the eyepiece, but not as much as on other occasions, so I took the plunge. And I was richly rewarded.

As most times has it, I took some time to scan the lunar surface for eye catching features. Damned if this time it wasn't a shadow with an uncanny resemblance to our homeland, Oz!

The early morning shadow creeping across from crater Maurolycus' eastern rim bore quite a striking likeness to a map of Australia. A very busy place here, with heavy cratering making for slow and time consuming progress. As time wore on, conditions improved, and the occasions of crystal clear seeing revealed sooooo much cratering at I'd guess the sub 1km mark. This resulted in tonight's sketch being smaller than usual, or my eyes would have just fallen out of my head.

The lower part of the sketch shows an unusual outline of two overlapping craters, Faraday and Stofler. Sitting right on the terminator with just the very tips of their rims being illuminated by the Sun.

I hope you enjoy this sketch, and are also surprised by the "Australia" shadow on the Moon.

Mental.

Object: Maurolycus and "Australia" shadow
Scope: C8, 8" SCT
Gear: 8mm Celestron Ultima LX, 250X
Location: Sydney, Australia
Date: 11th Oct, 2013
The shadow in the crater looks like a map of Australia....amazing work and talent!
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