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Lunar Observing Project 1

By Phil Sacco

Hello All, I hope you find this a worthwhile project...

With the growing number of Lunar and Planetary observers evident within our club (we have four, count them, four Lunatics now(!!) out of the national 100) I have put together a year long program for your viewing pleasure. The Project is devoted to the Moon, and has been drawn from the Astronomical Leagues Lunar List and information from NASA.

The project is intended to be a year long one in scope(pun intended), thus you will find your monthly challenge printed here in the Focal Point.

Anyone completing the entire project and supplying your Observing Chairman with your notes will be awarded the AL Lunar Certificate and Pin(the entire AL Lunar survey is included.....) as well as a copy of the Reformed Calendar based on the New Moon Cycle(Those attending the June meeting were given a briefing on the Reformed Calendar). I am currently working on a special certificate for those completing this program as well, as this project is quite in depth, I assure you, and anyone completing it will be worthy of special note.

I came up with the idea for this study while I was the Observing Chairman for the club. I had many conversations with the AL Lunar Rep- S. Nathan, and realized that many people working on the Lunar Certificate located many of the objects when they were not at the best time for viewing their detail. The AL Lunar Survey is designed so as to compel the participant to enjoy all the various phases of the moon. Each phase brings something new into view. Even well known and familiar features are rendered different as the ever-changing shadows bring into view different features not ordinarily seen.

I hope all of you will try this new program through out the year as it will offer you a new challenge each month, can be completed with the smallest of telescopes, can be done from your backyard, and the best of seeing isn't required. Hopefully this program will encourage more of you to get out under the night sky more often.

Any and all observations may be completed with optical assistance other than the category the object is listed under. Although the naked eye and binocular objects are features intended to be shared with others once you know them, some of us don't have the `eyes' we used to have, and a telescope or binoculars may be used on any object of the naked eye or binocular listing. You can always test your eyes and try for features listed with some optical aid without any instead.....

To complete your Challenge please indicate the date, time, instruments used and any notes you care to add for each object on the list. If you don't complete a full monthly listing, just roll the objects over to be seen to a later time. The entire list must be completed, however long it may actually take you.

Lunar Observing Challenge #1
Your complete Lunar Observing Challenge is a project intended to take several months, several cycles through the phases of the moon to complete. While you are working on the overall list, you will have a constant challenge to observe as many lunar dome features as you can find and record them. (There aren't that many really). Lunar domes tend to appear in clusters and groups. Lunar domes are simply low, hill like feature ranging from about 5 to 35 km in diameter. They often have a central crater and are in fact believed to be of volcanic origin. It is also possible that they may be the source of some instances of lunar transient phenomena.

To observe lunar domes, you will need a telescope of at least 6 inch aperture and high magnification (150/300). But, as you try these challenges over the year, understand that the real key to detecting lunar domes is the TIME you observe them. They are low, soft sloped hills that require a rising or setting sun on the moon to give them enough contrast to be detectable. This means waiting for the correct moon phase to place the terminator at or very near the sight of the dome. Getting a clear night, at the right moon phase, when you have the time and the desire to observe is what makes this a fairly long project. A specific dome or group of domes may be observable on only one or two nights of each lunar cycle. Add the chances of a few cloudy nights at just the wrong time and you see the problem. For those devoted deep sky observers, seeing the central vent is the antithesis of seeing a central star in a planetary nebula like M 57.

There are several resources of information available for Lunar Domes. There are seven (7) areas prominently shown in the pages of Atlas of the Moon, by Anton Rukl. The specific pages are (*)starred below. Another interesting source is The Moon - An observing guide for backyard telescopes, by Michael T. Kitt.

An article by Michael Kitt, "How To Find a Lunar Volcano" can be found in the December 1990 issue of Astronomy Magazine. An article by Alan MacRobert, "Lunar Domes" can be found in the October 1984 issue of Sky and Telescope Magazine.

A partial listing of lunar domes * = easiest to detect
Selenographic Atlas of the Moon

And now for your monthly challenge:
Naked Eye Targets:
1. Rabbit face and ears Hint: Tranquil Bunny! 2. Mare Crisium-Sea of Crisis 3. Mare Nubium-Sea of Clouds

Binocular Targets:
1. Find 2 prominent ray craters very close to each other. What are their names?
2. Lacus Somniorum - Lake of Dreams What Sea is it near?
3. Crater Aristarchus
4. Challenge: Crater Atlas - What other Greek mythological named crater is nearby?

Telescope Targets:
1. Crater Moltke - How is it visually unique? Hint: Apollo 11
2. Alpine Valley - What prominent crater is nearby?
3. Straight Wall - What is its other name?
4. Challenge: Rima Birt
Enjoy!!