Gasping at Gassendi
Explanation:
Perhaps Bruno Daversin is not the only one with a personal spaceship. Here is another image that looks more like it came from lunar orbit than an amateur's backyard. Gassendi is an observer's delight and often an imager's despair. The many rilles, from the broad familiar ones (I, II, VII) to wispy delicate ones (mostly unnumbered), are difficult to capture, but this 25 day old Moon image, like the 12 day old complementary view of John Sussenbach, displays them in stark detail. Rille VII appears to have elevated sides and seems to abruptly turn north and continue as rille I. Crater Gassendi A apparently dislodged a slump of material onto the floor of Gassendi, and rille IV skirts the edges of the slump mass. Like Plato, a huge triangular mass of Gassendi's west wall slide toward the crater center, creating a scallop on the rim. Strangely, this conspicuous block doesn't have a Greek letter designation. Finally, note the peculiar rille-like feature that crosses in Gassendi B and seems to continue on its floor. Odd.
—
Chuck Wood
Technical Details:
Sept 9, 2004, Starmaster 14.5 working at F/28, DMK-21F04 Firewire camera, 30FPS, stack of 1085 frames from 2400. The rille numerals are from The System of Lunar Craters, 3rd Quadrant map E6 (and also on the derivative Lunar Quadrant Maps).
Related Links:
Lunar Orbiter IV View
Rukl Atlas of the Moon, Sheet 52
