The week of January 23 to January 29 takes us from Lunar Day 3 to Day 9. This week we will highlight the moon craters Sabine & Ritter, viewable on Friday evening and located in the NE quadrant of the Field Map.
Sabine & Ritter: [NE/J11; L=19°E] About 60 miles west of the Apollo 11 landing site, you will see two curious moon craters: Sabine and Ritter. They are unusual because they should be deeper than they are. Look closely at Sabine (the easternmost) and you will see that its shallow floor looks like it has been cut out by a giant cookie cutter. Both Sabine and Ritter are floor-fractured craters (FFC’s). The pressure of upwelling magma from underneath has actually raised the floors to their present unnatural level.
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It is highly recommended that you get a copy of Sky and Telescope’s Field Map of the Moon, the very finest Moon map available for use at the telescope. It is available for $10.95 at www.skyandtelescope.com and on Amazon. All features mentioned in this blog will be keyed to the grid on the Field Map and will look like this: Plato: [NW/D9]
Credits:
Courtesy of Gray Photography of Corpus Christi, Texas
Lunar photos: NASA / USGS / BMDO / LROC / ASU / DLR / LOLA / Moon Globe. Used by permission
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