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Observing the Moon the Modern Astronomer’S Guide Observing the Moon The modern astronomer’s guide GERALD NORTH BSc published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain © Gerald North 2000 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Swift Regular 9.25/13pt. System QuarkXPress™ [se] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data North, Gerald. Observing the moon : the modern astronomer’s guide / Gerald North. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0 521 62274 3 (hc.) 1. Moon–Observers’ manuals. I. Title. QB581.N67 2000 523.3 21–dc21 99-044584 ISBN 0 521 62274 3 hardback CONTENTS Preface vii 4.2 Tripods and telephoto Acknowledgements ix lenses, focal ratios and exposures 74 1 “Magnificent desolation” 1 4.3 Lunar photography 1.1 An orbiting rock-ball 2 through the telescope – 1.2 Phases and eclipses 4 at the principal focus 80 1.3 Gravity and the tides 14 4.4 High-resolution 1.4 More about the motions photography 84 of the Moon – libration 15 4.5 Slow films and large 1.5 Co-ordinates on the effective focal ratios 92 surface of the Moon 20 4.6 Processing the film and 1.6 Occultations 22 techniques to bring out 1.7 Timing and recording detail in printing 93 occultations 26 4.7 Photography through 2 The Moon through the looking coloured filters 95 glass 29 4.8 Further reading 97 2.1 The Moon in focus 30 5 Moonshine and chips 99 2.2 The pioneering 5.1 Some basic principles of selenographers 41 CCD astrocameras 100 3 Telescopes and drawing 5.2 CCD astrocameras in boards 47 practice 102 3.1 What type of telescope 5.3 Videoing the Moon 106 do you need? 48 5.4 Image processing 117 3.2 How big a telescope do 5.5 Getting hard copy 118 you need? 55 5.6 Some CCD equipment 3.3 Eyepieces and suppliers 124 magnification 57 6 The physical Moon 125 3.4 Making the best of what 6.1 The first lunar scouts 125 you have 59 6.2 Men on the Moon 128 3.5 Drawing the Moon 61 6.3 The post-Apollo Moon 132 4 The Moon in camera 69 6.4 Not green cheese but . 133 4.1 Films for lunar 6.5 Genesis of the Moon 134 photography 71 6.6 The Moon’s structure 135 v vi CONTENTS 6.7 The evolution of the 8.23 Hyginus, Rima 243 Moon – a brief overview 137 8.24 Imbrium, Mare 246 6.8 Lunar chronology 139 8.25 Janssen 256 6.9 Filling in the details 140 8.26 Langrenus 260 8.27 Maestlin R 265 7 The desktop Moon 145 8.28 Messier 267 7.1 The Lunar Sourcebook 145 8.29 Moretus 269 7.2 Spacecraft imagery 146 8.30 Nectaris, Mare 271 7.3 The Internet 146 8.31 Neper 276 7.4 Lunar ephemerides 147 8.32 Pitatus 279 7.5 Measuring lunar surface 8.33 Plato 283 heights 147 8.34 Plinius 290 7.6 Maps, globes, posters and 8.35 Posidonius 296 charts 150 8.36 Pythagoras 299 7.7 Key map for Chapter 8 151 8.37 Ramsden 302 8 ‘A to Z’ of selected lunar 8.38 Regiomontanus 306 landscapes 155 8.39 Russell 311 8.1 Agarum, Promontorium 156 8.40 Schickard 316 8.2 Albategnius 159 8.41 Schiller 320 8.3 Alpes, Vallis 159 8.42 Sirsalis, Rimae 324 8.4 Alphonsus 161 8.43 “Straight Wall” 8.5 Apenninus, Montes 164 8.43 (Rupes Recta) 329 8.6 Ariadaeus, Rima 168 8.44 Theophilus 332 8.7 Aristarchus 171 8.45 Torricelli 337 8.8 Aristoteles 177 8.46 Tycho 339 8.9 Bailly 179 8.47 Wargentin 346 8.10 Bullialdus 181 8.48 Wichmann 349 8.11 Cassini 184 9 TLP or not TLP? 353 8.12 Clavius 187 9.1 The mystery unfolds 353 8.13 Copernicus 190 9.2 Categories of TLP 358 8.14 Crisium, Mare 198 9.3 The mystery continues 359 8.15 Endymion 204 9.4 What might be the 8.16 Fra Mauro 208 cause(s) of TLP? 368 8.17 Furnerius 213 9.5 Possible causes of bogus 8.18 ‘Gruithuisen’s lunar TLP 370 city’ 219 9.6 TLP observing 8.19 Harbinger, Montes 222 programme 373 8.20 Hevelius 225 8.21 Hortensius 232 Index 375 8.22 Humorum, Mare 235 CHAPTER 2 The moon through the looking glass Who first looked at the Moon through a telescope? The honest answer is that we do not know. We cannot even be sure as to when the telescope was invented, let alone who was first to look at the Moon through one. Until a few years ago most historians had settled upon 1608 as the prob- able year of invention of the telescope and a Dutch spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, as its probable inventor. Recently, however, evidence for an earlier invention has come to light. For instance, an Englishman, Thomas Digges, is thought to have produced a form of telescope sometime around 1555. What we can be certain of is that Galileo heard of the Dutch telescope and, with few clues to help him, he did manage to design and build a small refracting telescope for himself in 1609. Shortly thereafter he built other slightly better and more powerful versions (though still extremely imper- fect and lacking in magnification by modern standards) and we know that he used them to observe the celestial bodies, including the Moon. Galileo made sketches of the lunar surface. An Englishman, Thomas Harriott, had managed to obtain a telescope from Europe and also used it to observe the Moon at about the same time as Galileo. Harriott even produced what was very probably the first complete map of the Moon’s Earth-facing side to have been made using optical aid. Despite the imper- fections of his telescope, Harriott’s map does show features we can recog- nise today. You might have expected the coarsest features of the Moon to have been charted before the invention of the telescope. Undoubtedly they were, though the earliest ‘map’ produced without optical aid that we know of is that by William Gilbert. This was published posthumously in 1651, though it is supposed that he made it in 1600, or at some time close to that date, approximately three years before his death. 29 30 THE MOON THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS Although the very beginnings of lunar study might be shrouded in the mists of time, all that occurred after Galileo’s era is quite well documented. The Moon had become a subject for serious scientific study and astronomers set about mapping its surface features. As telescopes improved in their power and quality, so successive observers produced better and better maps. An essential for any cartographic exercise is the standardisation of nomenclature. Naming systems were devised by Langrenus in 1645 and by Johannes Hevelius in 1647. As an aside, Hevelius’s maps were notable because they were the first to take account of, and to represent, the regions of the Moon that were only shown as a result of libration. Despite this advance, Hevelius’s system of nomenclature was quickly superseded. Our modern scheme of naming lunar surface features really stems from that devised by Giovanni Riccioli. Riccioli was an Italian Jesuit. A pupil of his, Francesco Grimaldi, had made a telescopic study of the Moon. Riccioli com- bined Grimaldi’s observations into a map, which was published in 1651. Before taking our story further, it will benefit us to pause to consider the appearance of the Moon through a telescope and to get a brief overview of the modern nomenclature of the main types of surface features revealed by one of these wonderful devices. 2.1 THE MOON IN FOCUS Even a casual glance made without any form of optical aid reveals that the Moon is not a blank, shining disk. Aside from the phases, the Moon’s silvery orb clearly shows patchy dark markings. These give rise to the “Man in the Moon” (and the variety of animals and maidens which feature in other folk lores) effect which is so obvious around the time of the full Moon. Figures 2.1–2.5 show the general appearance of the Moon at successive stages in its lunation, as it is seen through a normal astronomical telescope stationed in the Earth’s northern hemisphere – in other words, with south upper- most. Since this book is intended for the amateur telescopist and since most of its readers are expected to reside in the northern hemisphere, all the telescopic views of the Moon in this book are orientated with south at least approximately uppermost. The large dark areas are known as maria, Latin for ‘seas’; the singular form is mare. Thanks to Riccioli, we have such charming names as Mare Imbrium (Sea of Showers), Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity), and Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquillity) to encounter on the Moon.
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