Moon Photos

Just a quick post to share some photos which we took last Saturday Night (1st Sept) whilst conducting a stargazing session for a group of students and parents from Pasir Ris Primary School.

It was one day after the Full Moon, therefore hardly any shadow on the surface. Craters stand out best with  some shadow to create an outline and give depth.
Full Moons are good for observing the large dark areas known as seas or "maria" (latin for seas) as well as a few craters with bright rays of dust which spread out across the surface after the original impact.

Crater Tycho - one of the brightest dust ray systems on the Moon

Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity) - with crater Langrenus (centre). Also crater Humboldt on the right side edge standing out near the lunar shadow.

Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises) on the top right, along with crater Gauss along the Moon's edge.

Mare Serenitatis (left) and Mare Tranquillitatis (right) - Seas of Serenity and Tranquillity. The far right of Tranquillity is the location of the Apollo 11 landing site, where the late Neil Armstrong took his first steps.

Crater Copernicus (centre) and crater Kepler (bottom centre) - in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms)

The sky was clear enough to see a number of other stars and planets. At the end of the evening I asked our guests what was the best object they saw, almost all replied "The Moon".
Its by far the biggest and brightest object in the night sky and with so many interesting features, I guess its hard not like the Moon.

In honour of Neil Armstrong

Landing site of Apollo 11 (Tranquillity Base) - Taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The horizontal tracks from the LM (lunar module) to the crater (Little West) were made by Neil Armstrong as he walked to observe the crater that he narrowly missed when landing the LM for first time back in 1969.