Oct 13. While looking at the moon tonight thru binoculars I noticed an area of interest to me was in prime position for imaging. Out with my 10" LX600 scope and on with a Canon 550d camera. The area known as Schroter's Valley is near the bright crater Aristarchus. This valley is a large sinuous rille. It starts at a deep crater known as the Cobra's Head and winds its way through the Aristarchus Plateau for over 160 km. The rille is about 5-10 km wide and a few hundred metres deep. It is believed to have been caused by a river of lava erupting from the Cobras head. Notice the dark diamond shaped Aristarchus Plateau that is covered with a layer of volcanic glass/ash below Aristarchus.
The first image (prime focus) shows the target area, the second image is a closer view (magnified thru an eyepiece). Both images are single exposures.
Thanks for viewing, cheers, John W.
That area caught my attention too and I spent quite some time observing the area in detail. Seeing was quite good but I had to content with some passing cloud.
I revisited the area over a couple of hours and was interesting to see the changing play of shadows.
Scope: 140mm refractor at 140X.
interesting. great photos.
Lava?? On the moon???
How fascinating!
Volcanic eruptions?? with great velocity on moons with low gravity ... just imagine where that stuff goes ... plays pool billiard in the Kuiper belt and then keeps hanging around there for like forever....