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Home , Deslandres (crater)

Watch this Space for October 2012

Moon Phase for October 2012 Planet Watch The Planets on view for October are: New First Quarter

15 / 10 / 12 22 / 10 / 12 Mercury: not visible this month. Venus: is a morning star rising at 3.30am. Full Moon Last Quarter Mars: not visible this month. 29 / 10 / 12 8 / 10 / 12 Jupiter: rises at 9.15pm the end of October 6.15pm. Saturn: not visible this month. The Sun Uranus: Setting at 6am in constellation of Pisces. Rises: 7.28am 15th October Neptune: setting at 2.30am in the constellation of Sets: 18.11 Aquarius.

Lunar Feature of the month Constellation of the month Deslandres & Sagitta The large, shallow Sagitta is the third smallest constellation, Deslandres is located and no stars are brighter south east of Mare than fourth magnitude. Nubium in the heavily The Greeks knew this cratered Southern constellation well and it Highlands region of the was described ‘alone, Moon. Formerly known without a bow’, as there is as ‘Hell Plain’, it has a no sign of the archer that diameter of may have shot it. approximately 234 km and a rim that is heavily worn. Sagitta has three stories associated with it.

Crossing its floor are two chains of smaller craters. Tale no. 1 One comprises five shallow craters in a line, in the It was said by that Sagitta was the north eastern region; the other, begins at Mare weapon with which killed the Cyclopes, who Nubium and crosses to the north and west of ‘Hell’. made the thunderbolts that Zeus used to kill Also in the north east there is a small area of dark Asclepius, the son of Apollo. basaltic lava material. This is close to a small, shallow crater (‘Hell B’) 22 km in diameter with a Tale no. 2 partly broken rim and smooth floor – possibly lava A story by Hyginus tells that Sagitta was one of the flooded. arrows that Heracles used to kill the eagle that ate the liver of Prometheus. Prometheus stole fire from Zeus Other notable craters meet, or intrude into, the rim of and after creating clay models of the gods, gave the Deslandres, such as ‘Walter’, ‘’ and fire to the models. Prometheus carried the fire ‘Regiomontanus’. triumphantly in a vegetable stalk. To punish him, Zeus chained him to Mount Caucasus, where an The crater ‘Hell’ (diam: 33 km and depth: 2200 m) is eagle ate his liver every morning, and at night his liver inside the western rim of Deslandres. It has a circular grew again only for the eagle to eat it the next day. shape and well-defined rim, but the western rim bulg- He was saved from this torture when Heracles killed es outwards. There is a narrow inner wall and its un- he eagle with an arrow. even floor contains several hills and a central peak rising to about 1 km. The north western area of the Tale no. 3 crater is considerably higher than the eastern region. It was said by Germanicus Caesar that the arrow that In the landscape surrounding ‘Hell’ there are kindled Zeus’s passion for Ganymede, a shepherd nineteen shallow satellite craters between 3 km and boy, was Sagitta which was the arrow of Eros. 22 km in diameter. Ganymede was placed in the sky as Aquarius. This crater was named in 1935 after the Jesuit priest Sagitta is now said to be protected by the eagle of and astronomer, Maximilian Hell. Zeus, and Sagitta lies next to the constellation of Aq- uila, the eagle. None of the stars in Sagitta are named. Image Credit: NASA / LRO LROC Team Messier Objects M71

Useful Web Sites We Choose the Moon

“We Choose the Moon” Is an interactive web site about the Apollo 11 Mission to the moon. A must see web site with videos and pictures to look at on your journey to the moon. http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/ Full Moon Image Credit: Steve Knight

ISS visibility, October 2012 observatory is 50.9 N - 1.0 W ISS visibility, October 2012 ISS night-time visibility, magnitude greater than -2.0, height greater than 30° Zenith Start End Date Time Mag Dirn Ht Dirn Ht Dirn Ht Sat 13 Oct 20:02 -3.5 SSE 39° SW 0° SSE 39° Mon 15 Oct 20:00 -4.1 SSE 68° WSW 0° ESE 54° Tue 16 Oct 19:11 -3.7 SSE 50° WSW 0° E 17° Wed 17 Oct 19:59 -4.1 N 86° W 0° ENE 61° Thu 18 Oct 19:10 -4.1 SSE 81° WSW 0° E 18° Fri 19 Oct 19:58 -4.1 N 76° W 0° ENE 64° Sat 20 Oct 19:09 -4.0 N 79° W 0° E 19° Sun 21 Oct 19:56 -4.2 N 85° W 0° E 74° Mon 22 Oct 19:07 -4.0 N 78° W 0° E 20° Tue 23 Oct 19:49 -4.0 SSW 69° WNW 0° SSE 65° Wed 24 Oct 19:06 -4.0 SSW 85° WNW 0° ESE 20° Thu 25 Oct 19:53 -2.9 SSW 40° WNW 0° S 36° Fri 26 Oct 19:04 -3.4 SSW 55° WNW 0° SE 15°

ISS Events Transits of Sun and Moon and night-time close passes. Date Time Event Fri 5 Oct 03:22 ISS transit of Moon Sun 7 Oct 00:09 ISS transit of Moon

Satellite flares Magnitude greater than -4.0, height greater than 30° Date Time Satellite Mag Dirn Ht Sat 6 Oct 19:12 Iridium 58 -6.9 N 54° Mon 8 Oct 19:00 Iridium 31 -5.4 N 58° Wed 17 Oct 20:10 Iridium 61 -4.4 NNE 33° Thu 18 Oct 20:04 Iridium 35 -4.0 NNE 35° Fri 19 Oct 19:58 Iridium 6 -6.4 NNE 36° Sat 20 Oct 19:50 Iridium 4 -4.2 NNE 38° Sun 21 Oct 19:45 Iridium 19 -6.8 NNE 40°

Data from CalSky: http://www.calsky.com