The week of October 12-18 takes us from Lunar Day 25 to Day 2. For the first part of the week, you’ll have to be up pretty early to see the Moon. On Tuesday, it rises at 3:04 AM; on Thursday, it rises at 5:34 AM. On Friday & Saturday, there’s nothing to see. On Sunday evening, it’s 2.5 days old, and you might be able to catch it before it sets at 7:50 PM, but it’s very close to the horizon. Try for Humboldt on Sunday evening.
Humboldt: [SE/M18] This crater is best viewed when there is a pronounced libration. Because of foreshortening, it appears to be extremely elongated north to south. It has a cluster of central peaks, and if you’re lucky, you might spot a long catena (crater chain) extending from the northeast rim of the crater.
OF ADDITIONAL INTEREST IN SPACE:
The Orionid meteor shower can be viewed on the night of October 21-22. Expect to see 15-20 meteors per hour.
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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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