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3towers Observatory Lunar 100/Lunar Features

The Lunar 100 was created by Charles A. Wood who states: "The Lunar 100 list is an attempt to provide Moon lovers with something akin to what deep-sky observers enjoy with the Messier catalog: a selection of telescopic sights to ignite interest and enhance understanding. [It is]... a selection of the Moons 100 most interesting regions, craters, basins, mountains, rilles, and domes."

Woods challenges "...observers to find and observe them all and, more important, to consider what each feature tells us about lunar and Earth history."

To find out more about the Lunar 100 see the Sky & Telescope web site at: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/article_1199_1.asp.

The Lunar 100 features are arranged from the easiest to view to the most difficult. The Moon itself is L1. L2 is Earthshine, and L3 represents the dichotomy between the Lunar highlands and the Lunar Maria. While the Lunar 100 are concentrated all on the nearside of the Moon, they can not be seen in a single night or a single month. Some of them require special lighting conditions or phases of the Moon, and others, in addition, require very favorable librations of the Moon to bring them into view. The Lunar 100 is an observing list. However, the equipment at the 3towers Observatory was used to image the Lunar 100, mainly using the web cam techniques detailed.

 

Lunar Features|Lunar 100|Moon Halos|Lunar Webcam Imaging|Lunar Eclipses




Lunar Feature Lunar Age in days (rounded down) Thumbnail Image Comments
71. Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle 8 days Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle The bright crater at bottom center is Menelaus. North of it is Bessel. Sulpicius Gallus is the crater West of Menelaus and half shadowed. Most of Mare Serenitatis is seen in this image.
71. Sulpicius Gallus dark mantel 9.7 days Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle  
71. Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle 18 days Sulpicius Gallus dark mantle  
72. Atlas dark-halo craters 4.5 days Atlas  
72. Atlas dark-halo craters 6.98 days Atlas dark halo craters at 6.98 days  
72. Atlas dark-halo craters 7.6 days Atlas  
72. Atlas dark-halo craters 9.7 days Atlas  
72. Atlas dark-halo craters 16 days Atlas and Hercules Hercules is the crater with a small inner crater.  Atlas is next to Hercules and has dark spots.   Endymion is the large, flat crater Northeast of Atlas.
73. Smythii basin 4 days Mare Smythii  
73. Smythii basin 5 days Mare Smythii is on the Eastern edge of the Moon. Langrenus is the large crater with central peaks.
73. Smythii basin 7.0 days Smythii basin 7.0 days  
73. Smythii basin 10.9 days Mare Smythii  
74. Copernicus H dark-halo impact crater 10 days Copernicus H dark-halo impact crater The tiny crater Southeast of Copernicus with a dark halo around it is Copernicus H. Directly South of Copernicus is the double crater Fauth and Fauth A.
74. Copernicus H dark-halo impact crater 11.7 days Copernicus H  
74. Copernicus H dark-halo impact crater 21.7 days Copernicus H  
75. Ptolemaeus B 8 days Hipparchus The largest craters are from top to bottom, right to left are Hipparchus, Albategnius, Ptolemaeus, and Alphonsus. In the floor of Ptolemaeus is the small crater Ammonius and North of Ammonius is a saucer like depression which is Ptolemaeus B.
75. Ptolemaeus B 8.0  days Ptolemaeus B  
76. W. Bond 8.1 days W. Bond W. Bond is the large flat crater with a small inner crater. 
77. Sirsalis Rille 13 days Sirsalis Rille and Cruger  
77. Sirsalis Rille 13.1 days Sirsalis Rille and Cruger  
78. Lambert R 22 days Lambert Below center is the crater Pytheas and above center is Lambert. Lambert R is a "ghost" crater South of Lambert. Euler is near the left edge, Timocharis is East of Lambert, and Eratosthenes is at the lower right hand corner. 
78. Lambert R 23 days Lambert R Lambert is below center with a large "ghost" crater just South of Lambert.
79. Sinus Aestuum dark-mantle deposit 9 days Sinus Aestuum  
79. Sinus Aestumm dark-mantle deposit 21.7 days Sinus Aestuum  
80. Orientale basin   14.7 days Orientale Basin  
80. Orientale Basin and Western Limb of the Moon at Full Moon   14.7 days

Orientale Basin

Western limb of the Moon labeled

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LA - Lacus Autumni; MC - Montes Cordillera; LAe - Lacus Aestatis; MR - Montes Rook

80. Orientale Basin 20.67 days Orientale Basin