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Bull's Eye!
18.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
Our understanding of the Moon would have advanced much faster if the Orientale basin were not just over the western limb. If Orientale were more centered of the face of the Moon we see from Earth everyone from Galileo onward would have understood large circular impact basins.
Awesome Pitatus
17.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
Pitatus is one of the under-appreciated gems of the Moon. With a diameter of 97 km it is about the same width as Plato (101 km), but has a much more interesting interior. Presumably Pitatus was a Copernicus style crater when formed, with magnificent concentric wall terraces and a large central peak.
Lunar Ephemeris
16.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
I am one of the special 5% (or is it 4%?) of Americans who use the Macintosh computer. My life is happy and I am awed with the ease of computing....for most things. But almost all astronomy software is written for Intel/Windows machines, especially lunar software.
Peaks of Plato
15.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
The Moon always repays observation. For sociological reasons (sleep and jobs), Plato is commonly studied before midnight, and so the sunrise view with shadows cast by peaks on the eastern ramparts is most familiar.
Happy Birthday, Einstein!
14.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
If you think the Theory of Relativity is hard, try finding Einstein's crater! Although its diameter of 170 km makes it one of the largest craters on the lunar near side, Einstein's location at 88.5 W longitude means that its rarely visible.
First Light on a Nearly Full Moon
13.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
A new telescope brings great joy, anticipation and too often, clouds. Here is a first light image by Mark Stronge of Northern Ireland of the nearly full Moon of March 5th. Mark followed...
Forming the Moon
12.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
Bill Hartmann isn't really that old, but from his paintings of the formation of the Moon you might think he witnessed the event 4.5 billion years ago. As a leading planetary scientist and a skilled artist, Hartmann uses painting to visualize scientific understanding and hypotheses.
Where is Yesterday's LPOD?
11.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
Yesterday's LPOD was the remarkably high resolution image of a small piece of the Moon taken two years ago with one of the European Southern Observatory's 8.2 m telescope. Accepting the ESO press release, I stated that the image showed an area just inside the crater Taruntius. ESO and I were wrong.
ESA Looks at Taruntius
10.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
In the past large telescopes were commonly used to image the Moon. Edward Holden used the 36" Lick refractor to compile a lunar photographic atlas in the 1890s and Moore and Chappell acquired more great images from 1937 to 1947.
Half Moon in Tucson
9.03.2004 | Lunnoe foto dnya
Lunar globes are rare and wonderful. At one time I had the small metal Replogle globe and I still possess a tiny NASA one plus my joy - a 12" Soviet-era globe that has unfortunately suffered plate tectonic ruptures from too many moves.