Observations>Telescope Objects>Craters ~7 Days Old

Manilius: Location is King


An isolated, seaside location on Mare Vaporum, close by Maria Serenitatis and Tranquilitatis, make this an easy crater to locate.

Observer Comments

Target DescriptionManilius is a counterpoint to Gemma Frisius. An isolated crater located in the NE corner of Mare Vaporum, with distinctive landmarks from neigboring Maria, it's easy to find in a wide variety of lighting angles. Here, the 10.5 day light illuminates the steep slope of the interior crater walls, and highlights a series of rays extending southward onto Mare Vaporum. If I understand the physics correctly, it suggests the impacting object approached from a slightly oblique northerly angle. The crater obviously post-dates the lava flows filling up Mare Vaporum because the rays are sitting on top.
Image Capture DescriptionTechnically, this is the best lunar observation in this submission (at least so far). It takes advantage of the EdgeHD at full 2032mm focal length and 294 camera. This was my first experience with SharpCap's real-time lucky imaging. I had turned to it out of desperation because wildfire smoke had ruined multiple observing nights for much of the summer. Smoke turned the original image bright yellow (I converted it to grayscale). Despite the poor transparency, the combination of much longer focal length, lucky-image stacking, and wavelet sharpening delivers a much more detailed image than any of the Seestar captures.
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Capture Details

Date and Time Observed2024-09-13 21:56:00
Phase Age10.5 days
Lunar PhaseWaxing Gibbous
Illumination78%
ConditionsTransparency: Poor. Seeing: Good.
Obs. Lat/Long42° 17', 073° 57'
Capture SoftwareSharpCap
Capture TypeReal-time lucky imaging with wavelet sharpening
InstrumentEdgeHD 8" f10-2,032mm FL
CameraASI294MC-Pro
Capture DetailsApproximately 20 images stacked 50ms exposures
Post ProcessingLeveled and sharpened in Affinity Photo