Clair-Obscur Effect near Mare Humorum?

Dear fellow IFAS members,

Last Friday (8th November) I spent approximately an hour observing the area around Mare Humorum. At approximately 22:10 UT I noticed a most distinguishable face around this area of the lunar surface.

Over the past week I have searched the Internet to see if other people have seen such a feature, but I've had no joy. So, I am now reaching-out to you.

I'm wondering whether you have noticed a lunarism that takes the shape of a face near craters Liebig, Liebig A, Liebig B, Liebig F, Liebig G, Liebig H, Liebig J, Mersinus D, Mersinus E, and the Rupes Lieibig during your observations of this part of the lunar surface?

I attempted to take a picture of it using my phone and telescope, but the results were not great. Interestingly, the photo showed a second face above the one I am referring to in this post!

Needless to say, I'd be most grateful to hear from you if you have noticed this phenomenon before.

Many thanks for reading this post and kindest regards,


Darren.

Let me come back to you on that one, Darren.
I'm out too much in recent nights.

I'll probably check out your lunar feature on Saturday - if not next week.

Clear skies,

Aubrey.

No rush Aubrey, you're very good to get back to me.

As a quick update for you and the other IFAS members, I also posted my image on one of the cloudynights forums. Interestingly, one of members there noted that the face is not recorded on this list:  the-moon.us/wiki/Clair-obscur . The same member also ran a simulation using the LRO Quick Map  quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/ . He stated the simulation clearly showed the face, and sent me a screenshot of the simulation. 

He has also provided a couple of other organisations for me to contact to check whether this 'face' has been recorded as a clair-obscur effect elsewhere. 

Chat soon and clear skies 

Darren. 

Hi All,

I'm keen to provide you with an update with regards to some of the conversations I've had over the past week.

As detailed in this thread, it appears that I may have observed a new clair-obscur effect on the lunar surface. Having reached out to several lunar observers on the Cloudy Nights(CN) website to see whether such an effect has been recorded as a clair-obscur effect elsewhere, the consensus is no, it hasn't.

For example, one CN member, who goes by the username 'Sarkikos' created a list of clair-obscur effects over ten years ago. He and I have been in contact several times over the week, and he said he is not aware of such an effect, but congratulated me on spotting the face-effect. As he now focuses his attention on other astronomical interests such as drawing planets and observing double stars, he suggested that we update the clair-obscur list for two reasons: Firstly, the wikispaces webpage, which seems to be one of the more popular and comprehensive lists available to amateur astronomers, is no longer open to edit ( www.wikispaces.com/ ), and (2) his original list dates back to 2009.

In addition, another member on the CN lunar observations (the one who ran the simulation last week and clearly saw the face) encouraged me to contact the Lunar section of the British Astronomical Association to see whether they are aware of such an effect near Mare Humorum. So, I emailed them and interestingly Professor Bill Leatherbarrow - Director and Circulars editor - replied stating he and not come across this clair-obscur effect before.

So, it seems that the 'face' I captured through the eyepiece a couple of weeks ago may need to be added to a more up-to-date list of clair-obscur effects. For this reason, I am going to start on creating a new list of clair-obscur effects on the lunar surface by building on the work of others such as 'Sarkikos' whose real name is Mike btw; and those who helped to create the wikipage ( the-moon.us/wiki/Clair-obscur ).

Thus, if any IFAS member is interested in helping to compile a new list of clair-obscur effects I'd love to hear from you. Also, while Professor Leatherbarrow explained that clair-obscur effects have no real geographical or topological significance, he said they are fun to detect. With this in mind, would anyone here be interested in giving this new clair-obscur effect an informal name for future observers to detect?

Kindest regards,

Darren.