| Target | Moon |
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| Constellation | Psc |
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| Category | Lunar |
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| Time | 20060909.2110 EDT |
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| Comments | | Lunation | 1035 |
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| Age | 17d5h49m |
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| Elongation | 147.98° W |
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| Illuminated | 92.4% |
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- The moon was very orange as it rose.
- The terminator passed througn Messala, outside of Heminus and Cleomedes and down into Mare Crisium. Something on the dark side of Mare Crusaiim was catching light, possibly Eimmaet.
- I could see Meassier A and its associated ray on the floor of Mare Fecunditatis: Described in Moon Onserver's Guide:
In the Mare's northwestern quadrant are two tiny craters, lying side by side - Messier and Messier A. Messier is eliotical, measuring 9x11 km and elongated raft-west, while Messier A is an 13x11 km peanut-shaped double crater. A remarkable double ray stretches like two parallel searchlight beams more than 150 km westward from Messier A to Fecunditatis' Border. Messier's rays will become easier to see as the Sun rises. In the general vicinity of Messier, particularly to the south, a very low sun will reveal a dozen or more ghost craters in Mare Fecunditatis. Some of these are independant, while others appear to be intimately connected with the more prominent wrinkle ridge system. Many of these features are undoubtedly craters which have been completely buried by lava flows.
Exploring the Moon through binocukses and small telescopes. Says Just east of the midpoint between Gocleniua and Tarantius an elongated bright speck may be seen on the dark Fecunditatis plain with a weak ray running west from it some 70 miles to the edge of the mare and a more conspicuous north-south ray crossing it. With excellent conditions you may be able to resolve the speck into a pair of dots separated in the direction of the weak ray, and the ray itself may be resolved into two fine lines resembling a comet tail. The easy dot is MESSIER, 6 miles wide and 4100 feet deep, and the west one is WILLIAM PICKERING, 7 miles wide and 5700 feet deep. As we have seen, many "changes" in those two little craters have been reported over the years, particularly by the astronomer after whom the west one is named. Evidently they are so formed that the changing angle of solar illumination causes striking variations in outline and general appearance. A study of the plates on which they appear in the Photographic Lunar Atlas confirms this rather common but here exagerated phenomenon. The craters are not circular but greatly elongated on an axis through their centers, tbeir lengths being 10 and 11 miles respectively. Such considerations prompted Harvey Bininger, writing in Sky and Telescope, June, 1952, to suggest that the two were formed almost simultaneously by the impact of a single meteoritic body which came in at a low angle from the east, pierced the surface at Messier, and ricocheted out again at William Pickering, scattering a double tail of bright ejecta westward across the plain. Does a tunnel connect the two? We shall look forward to the report of an examination of the pair by one of our astronauts someday after space exploration resumes. andI have stayed that cratres generally are seen best when near the terminator. The statement if correct, but it does not apply to every crater. MESSIER and WILLIAM PICKERING are an exceptional pair. Those two small craters, about six and seven miles across, respectively, are found close together in an easy-west line in the western part of Mare Fecunditatis. They usually are accompanied by a double ray resembling a comet's tail that can be traced about 75 miles west to the border of the mare. I have looked for those rays many times with either the sunrise or sunset terminator nearby, but always in vain as far as revelation through binoculars is concerned. However, when the moon is near full, the two little craters shine so brilliantly that binoculars disclose them as a close pair of tiny bright dots. Incidentally, the west crater of the pair, William Pickering, is named for the astronomer who studied the two extensively around 1900 and reported striking changes during the lunation which he attributed to the formation and melting of ice. Such changes of appearance certainly occur, but likely they result from variations in reflecticity only.
- Below Mare Fecunditatis, the floor of Langrenus was in shadow with its far inner wall lit up. Vendelinis was completely dark. Petsnuis was in shadow but the top of its central peak was still in sunlight. Furberius wwa in shadow but its far wall was still illuminated. As the night progressed the sun gradually left the inner walls of Labgranis and then Furberius but the central peak of Petscuis was still lit up when we relocated to TPO. The Moon Onserver's Guide says:
Through binoculars, Lamgernia, Vendelinis, Petscuis and Furberius in the south remain easily visible, Labhernia and Petscuis being the most impressive of these.
- Plato normally looks much darker than the floor of Mare Imbriun but tonight it is about the same shade. Gassendi looks darker tonight.
- Mare Tranquilitatis looks like it flows over into Mare Serenitatis (there is an arc of darker lava on the floor of Serenitatis that follows the arc of the edge of Tranquilitatis where the two mare touch) and flows around the highland between Mares Tranquilitatis, Fecunditatis, and Nectaris, and around the marsh next to Mare Crisium.
- The area north of Mare Frigoris looks a lot flatter than usual, the same south of Tycho.
- The Moon is not as bright as normal - very comfortable viewing - but I have installed the moon filters (80A) anyway.
- There is a ring of darker color floor just inside the terminator side wall of Mare Serenitatis.
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