Mare Crisium

Now that the short summer nights have passed I've dusted off the kit and am looking forward to the autumn and winter skies. This week has seen plenty of gaps in the cloud but also quite a lot of haze and a full Moon, so to ease myself back into taking pictures I've started with some Moon shots (not that I need an excuse for taking Moon pictures anyway).

By chance the last couple of years have presented me with more waxing Moons than waning Moons, so despite the hazy sky it was pleasing to have a waning gibbous Moon to offer something a bit different. I'm going to start with a picture of Mare Crisium which follows on nicely from my last post from the spring regarding Proclus. Mare Crisium (the "Sea of Crises") is located towards the north-east of the Moon and is easily picked-out above and to the right of Mare Tranquillitatis. Proclus lies between these two "seas" and my earlier post shows Proclus at full moon (ideally the picture should be rotated about 30 degrees anti-clockwise). This time we see Proclus and Mare Crisium at the terminator (and a more accurate orientation!):


The high albedo of Proclus is still apparent but its ray system is not as obvious as in the full Moon picture and mainly visible to the west. Despite the poor seeing conditions and minimal processing, I think the picture has come out quite well.

Here is a modified version with some of the key features labelled: