That's the crater Pythagoras. There's numerous interesting things when looking at this crater, and not just to do with the photo you mention.
The curious multiple central peaks is nothing more than a digital processing & data collecting artifact. At first glance it looks like there are three parallel ridges, with the middle one have an odd spike halfway along it. Look a little more closely and you will see several more "echo" ridges that are a result of the very brightly illuminated ridge. Yes the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with this, but only if they are ignorant about contemporary digital imaging. The link below is to the picture you refer to:
This photo is also a fantastic example of lunar libration when seen beside the sketch I did of Pythagoras. The photo has the crater well clear of the lunar limb, yet my sketch has the crater right on the limb itself. And no, I didn't see the same striated central peak. Just the one. Makes for an interesting comparison the relative position of Pythagoras between the above photo and the sketch I made of the same crater.
This libration, or wobble that the Moon has allows us to see nearly 60% of its surface, not 50 if this wobble did not occur. The gif below is greatly accelerated, but the file is small enough for the IIS file manager to allow. Gives the idea anyway of the libration the Moon shows in a single cycle:
This is one thing I've forgotten to mention in the thread about observing the Moon and planets. I'll add a post to that thread shortly. In the meantime, if you would like to learn a bit more about the Moon and what it has to offer (not just craters an lava fields, but also volcanoes, singular and clusters, collapsed lava tubes, pyroclastic deposits, weathering (no atmosphere or water, but weathering still happens!)), and the fantastic photo opportunities that all this offers, you might like to look through that thread:
Beginner astrophotographer here, first post on the forum, blood moon from February 2019. Pretty happy with the result, tried to maintain the natural colour I was seeing on the night.
Sony A6000 unmodded
40 images stacked
Celestron 8" on HEQ5
Stacked and processed in Photoshop
No noise reduction
Last edited by Capt_buscemi; 28-03-2019 at 10:21 AM.
Taken this evening on a whim... observing conditions aren't particularly good in FNQ at present... first time I've ever been grateful for clouds whilst doing AP in any form...
[QUOTE=mental4astro;1440801]Something a little different again. The 12th of August lunar occultation of Saturn
1,First pic is of the Moon approaching Saturn.
2, Going... 3, going... 4, Gone!
5, 6, & 7 And Saturn re-emerging from behind Saturn.
Done using my Intes 715D Maksutov, pointing my phone into the eyepiece - 25mm plossl (1), 14mm Vixen SSW (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), and 7mm Vixen SSW (7).[/QUOTE
Not bad for a mobile phone Alex..
Was it my imagination or did the banding just stand out more clearly tonight.
Against the Moon...the seeing nothing special at,all..soo much detail in my 130mm Apo too.
Bigjoe
The sky was very transparent after this big blow we've had the last few days. I think that's gone a long way to bringing out the detail. I also noticed the detail seemed to POP. The colour of Saturn compared to the Moon was also striking.
