Friday, October 20, 2023
International Observe the Moon Night, Saturday October 21, 2023
International Observe the Moon Night is on Saturday October 21. The moon is almost First Quarter, which is good for crater viewing, there is a lot to see with the unaided eye or binoculars.
location maps from NASA showing where local events are located are available at the link.
The moon is one day away from First quarter, so there will be a lot of interesting carters visible on the moons limb, the sunlight/dark boundary.At this time the Moon is at maximum libration, with the normally hidden Mare Humboldtanium now visible in binoculars or telescopes.While the moon keeps on face towards the earth, changes in perspective from the Earth and Moons relative positions in their orbits means that sometimes we can see bits of the Moon normally hidden, this is libration.
Other features visible are the very obvious Aristoteles crater with the slightly smaller crater Eudoxus, these two form a distinctive pair. Towards the centre is Ptolemaeus crater, which is joined to the rim of the crater Alphonsus by a section of rugged, irregular terrain, and these form a prominent chain with Arzachel to the south. On the dark/light boundary is the Sea of Serenity, where Apollo 17 landed. See the map to the above left, click to embiggen.
PDF Moon maps from NASA suitable for printing are available at the link.
There are many ways to observe the Moon. Unaided eye, binoculars, telescope. No matter what approach you choose, it will be well worth it to go out and just look up.
Labels: international Observe the Moon Night, Moon, public outreach
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