The week of March 31-April 6 takes us from Lunar Day 3 to Day 9. This week we will highlight the moon crater Taruntius, visible on Tuesday night close to the terminator.
Taruntius: [NE/J14; L=47°E] Located on the north shore of Fertility, Taruntius is a wonderful example of a floor-fractured crater (FFC). Take a close look at it. Once you are familiar with the appearance of “normal” craters you will notice right away that Taruntius has an unusually shallow basin. This is because hot magma underneath pushed upward with such force that the entire floor rose a little over a mile to its present level!
Also notice the surrounding material that was ejected from the impact (the secondary craters) and the small moon crater Cameron that resulted from an object that hit precisely on the northwest rim. (Although Cameron looks small, it is nearly seven times larger than Meteor Crater in Arizona!) Cameron is a simple moon crater. Can you tell if it is bowl-shaped or does it have a flat floor? (In order to tell, you have to be observing when the rim shadow is crossing the floor.)
OF ADDITIONAL INTEREST IN SPACE
On Tuesday, the Pleiades are 0.6° south of the Moon.
On Wednesday, Jupiter is 5.5° south of the Moon.
On Saturday, Mars is 2.2° south of the Moon.
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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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