The Moon

 2001 March 4th   Age: 9 days



 


 


 
All images taken with 50cm f/4 stopped down to 250 cm + SXF CCD + 5x Power Barlow.  The crater floor and  walls of Copernicus offer a wealth of detail to the CCD camera, particulary the small craterlets formed from the ejecta. As seeing conditions were excellent,   I was hoping to record the central rille running the length of the Alpine Valley, which  is a difficult target with an apparent width of just 0.27" arc  (just visible in 2nd image). The crater floor of Plato is another good test of  resolution. There are at least six  craterlets,  but only two show up at average resolution.