Lightning on the Moon

Hi all

I'm just out observing the moon at the moment, I am looking at the northern section of Mare Serenitatis, there is a feature, a cliff or dorsa, that is striking down from the Caucasus Mountains onto the mare that is shaped like a lightning bolt. There is a well defined shadow that gives it the obvious shape, anyone else notice this?

Paul

Hi Paul.
I was studying the Moon tonight Monday.

Is it west of the large crater Posidonius?

What map is it in Antonin Rukl's Books?

Aubrey.

I was also looking at the moon tonight - took a shot....must have been around the same time as you were looking Paul. Probably a slightly different angle from SE Spain so don't think I picked up what you were noticing.
Image is at... www.kinchastro.com/waxing-moon.html

Brendan.

Nicely spotted Paul. It was still prominent when I got the scope on it around 2230. In the image below P is Posidonius, Aubrey and A is Aristoteles, with the lightning bolt circled. The moon was 5 days 21 hrs at this point.



Finbarr.

Edit: Just seen your post there Brendan, maybe it's a special feature only visible from Ireland

It's one of the great things about observing the moon, is the sighting of unusual features, many of them only visible at a certain time in the lunar cycle.

I have been neglecting the moon of late, :blush: shame on me, I spent a lot of time studying the dorsae in Mare Serenitatis, the effect of waves on a sea are easy to imagine. I was also looking south, the Rupes Altai region is a great area to study, Rabbi Levi is a fascinating crater, it is so reminiscent of Clavius with a string of craters within the main crater, I could see all five.

I don't have Rukl, Aubrey, I use the following that I downloaded onto my computer.
www.astronomylogs.com/pages/moon.html
The southern highlands were always a confusing area of the moon for me, with this map I find it easier to navigate around this region.

The moon was soon eclipsed by the house and I moved onto other observing targets.

Paul

Hello, all.
Thank you, Fermidox Kinch and Paul.
I have just discovered that the featured image is on Map 13 of Rukl's book and unfortunately, it has no name.
However on Monday night, I did observe very large Dorsums and a few majestic rilles. The dorsums were Azara, Lister, Smirnov, and Aldrovandi. The rilles were Rimae Plinius and Rima Posidonius -the latter I had never seen in all my days. It was truly spectacular.
Also Rimae Burg was a first time observation for me. Initially I thought this was what Paul had seen. I desperately tried to observe Rima Daniell and the diminutive crater Abetti which is right next to Mon Argaeus. But it was to no avail.
One other feature I should mention was my first time observation of the crater Clerke. This is named after Mary Agnes Clerke who hailed from Skibereen County Kerry. It was she who thought that R Leporis is the reddest star in the entire heavens! The crater is 7 kilometres wide and 1430 metres deep.
I shall remember my observations of the Moon March 14th 2016 for quite a few things; not least for Rima Posidonius.
This was truly a night to remember!
I will record other observations later on.

Clear skies to all.

Aubrey.