Garyh,
no, I don't think the object is a shadow cast onto the surface of the Moon, though the view exists to be explored at a later time perhaps.
I've attached a diagram which locates the picture in lunar time. In the image you can see Copernicus and a long shadow stretching across the crater basin.
The crater wall is obviously shorter than the crater diameter. In fact, a general universal rule throughout the universe is- the longer the shadow is from an object the lower the light source will be in relation to the object.
From the shadow on Copernicus I can see that night is approaching on the Lunar surface inside the Copernicus crater. The shadow stretches quite far, so we may say that the sun is lower than 45 degrees and approaching 0 degrees. At an estimate it is later afternoon inside the Copernicus crater.
To test the theory all one need do is grab a stick, place it in the ground, and watch how the shadow stretches as the sun sinks in the west. As the sun sinks in the west, shadows get longer.
At an estimate I would say that the line of shadow heading to the sun is roughly 15 to 35 degrees (.i.e.,d1), and that is all I can say on the issue for now, until I deduce more information from the image.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6...craterbmv0.jpg