Mare Crisium

Conditions:
Fairly clear, some high cloud, seeing steady and moon waning gibbous at 90% full

Targets Observed:
Mare Crisium region

Notes
Lots to note here tonight. The seeing was steady enough that Crater Swift was no trouble. This is by far the smallest crater I have located yet, at 12 kms across.

The terminiator cuts through Hahn tonight, so the whole Mare is bathed in sunlight but there some shadows along the far western edge of the Dorsum Oppel. It'll be interesting to how it has changed by tomorrow night.

M27 in murky skies

Conditions:
Clear and dark with poor transparency, especially in the south east. Light cirrus clouds moving in and dissolving.

Targets Observed:
M27, gamma Del, M31, tried for M2, M73, M74, NGC7009 (Saturn Nebula)and zeta Aqu

Notes
Very dark night and the limiting mag above me was about 6 if not fainter. Sketched the Dumbbell Nebula (NGC6853 M27). As I was sketching, a tumbling satellite plunged across the nebula. It moved very fast and had a very rapid period, with bright peaks.

This was the first planetary nebulae ever discovered, and it's huge...about half the size of the moon. I couldn't make out that much of it, but it's still pretty big. Lots of 9th magnitude stars around the nebula.

I had set out to look for the trio of DSOs in Aquarius, M72, M73 and the Saturn Nebula, but I couldn't find any of them. Couldn't split zeta Aqu either, although gamma Del was pretty. The seperation between thos stars is 10" as opposed to zeta Aqu's 2.1".

Had my first gander at M31 tonight too. It filled the eyepiece with it's glory. No structure but lots of show.

M15

Viewed M15 again. Noticed again the slight bulge in the cluster.

Lots of smoke in the atmosphere. Very dark night, but not so clear.

Craters Hahn and Berosus

Conditions:
Clear and pretty good seeing. Moon at waning gibbous at 85%

Targets Observed:
Craters Hahn and Berosus on the terminator

Notes
Sketched these two craters which lie to the north of Mare Crisium. Hahn, which has a central mountain, was completely dark within. Beorsus was half lit from its pointy side, which faces west.

Was quite taken with the shapes in the Mare Angus to the north of the pair. From this photo you can see one shpae that looks like an erect penis and another, not visible in the photo that resembles an elongate Homer Simpson.

Hahn was named for an 18th century German astronomer Comte Friedrich von Hahn, who discovered the central star in the ring nebula in 1800 using an 18" reflector.

Crater Berosus is named for a 3rd century Babylonian preist and astronomer. He is said to have discovered the sundial and written a history o Babylonia.

Neper and vicinity

Conditions:
Clear, good transparency, moon waning gibbous at 93%

Targets Observed:
Neper and vicinity

Notes
The terminator shows at 84 degrees east tonight illuminating the central peak in Neper. Neper appears as a long thin oval (141 kms) with steep walls and a tall central mountain. The walls and the peak are in light and the floor is black with shadow.

Just south lies craters Schubert and Back and then the walled plain of Kastern. Beyond them Mare Smythii curves away into sunset.