7:12 PM CDT 10-2-11 (00:12 UTC 10-3-11)
8″ reflector telescope, 25mm eyepiece
The closeups below were taken with the same optical equipment plus a 2x Barlow:
7:21 PM. The large crater near the center, with a partial double wall, is Posidonius. The pair of craters to the upper right of Posidonius are Hercules (smaller) and Atlas (larger). To the lower left of Posidonius, within Mare Serenitatis, a feature aptly called Serpentine Ridge is showing up nicely.
7:19 PM. Due to a large amount of libration, Mare Crisium shows up especially well, with Mare Undarum just to its lower right, Mare Marginis visible along the right limb, and Mare Smythii just below (south of) Mare Marginis. The crater Cyrillus is conspicuous in the lower left of the picture.
7:16 PM. The area I like to call “Mickey Mouse On the Moon” (Janssen and adjoining craters) is just below the center of the picture.
All with LG VX8360 cell phone camera.
I don’t know what a 2XBarlow is, but it looks like you were driving by the moon and slowed down for some close-ups…. good job!!!
all these on a cell phone??? I am amazed!!!!
Thanks! A Barlow lens is a small concave lens (like eyeglass lenses for nearsightedness) that you put your eyepiece into, then put the whole assemblage into the telescope, and the net effect is to increase magnification with the same eyepiece. My Barlow doubles the magnification, in this case from 65x to 130x.
That’s actually a pretty apt description of the immediacy of the experience of telescopic observation, though I’ve usually fancied myself as being aboard a low-tech spaceship instead. :O)
But, yeah, I suppose I could have been “driving” my spaceship …