The week of May 1-7 takes us from Day 11 to Day 17. This week we will highlight the moon crater Schickard, viewable on Tuesday night and located in the SW quadrant of the Field Map.
Schickard: [SW/P4; L=55°W] When you look at Schickard you should immediately notice something unusual: Schickard’s floor has stripes! It is dark on both the north and south ends, but there is a wide central stripe of lighter material. You are looking at terrain that is made up of two different chemical compositions and is a result of a combination of lighter highland material that was blown in from the formation of the Mare Orientale basin and dark basaltic material (molten lava that welled up from underneath) on the northern and southern portions of Schickard.
OF ADDITIONAL INTEREST IN SPACE
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will be on Friday, which unfortunately coincides with the Full Moon. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard was the first American in space.
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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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