Naked Eye Lunar Observing Pt 2

November 30th, 2017 | by sbieger |

In this post, we’ll continue the discussion of naked eye targets on our Moon. In the first post, we looked at some of the larger mare that present themselves during the week from new moon to 1st quarter. Let’s “follow the terminator” and look for some more challenging objects to be found during the week up to 1st Qtr. We’ll use some of the so called “Pickering Dozen” to add to the hunt. I’ll call them “P12″ for short.

When the moon is illuminated “half way” on the right side, there are fewer of the prominent craters that appear later on. However, if you have located Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis, you can use these to find some more challenging mountains and regions on their edges. Between these two large features is a thinning kind of peninsula known as the Plinius Region, named for the crater in its vicinity, Plinius. You should be able to make out this feature to the left of the field at the juncture of both of these large features.

Another of the P12 is immediately to the left. Mare Vaporum, The Sea of Vapors. At first quarter, this feature will be just to the right of the terminator just above the equator. It’s a smaller mare that looks a bit like an extension of Serenitatis to the south west.  That will be our reference point next time when we hike the Apennine Mountains!

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