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Grassland Observatory:  The Lunar 100

The Lunar 100 was created by Charles A. Wood who states: "The Lunar 100 list is an attempt to provide Moon lovers with something akin to what deep-sky observers enjoy with the Messier catalog: a selection of telescopic sights to ignite interest and enhance understanding. [It is]... a selection of the Moon's 100 most interesting regions, craters, basins, mountains, rilles, and domes."

Woods challenges "...observers to find and observe them all and, more important, to consider what each feature tells us about lunar and Earth history."

To find out more about the Lunar 100 see the Sky & Telescope web site at: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/article_1199_1.asp.

The Lunar 100 features are arranged from the easiest to view to the most difficult. The Moon itself is L1. L2 is Earthshine, and L3 represents the dichotomy between the Lunar highlands and the Lunar Maria. While the Lunar 100 are concentrated all on the nearside of the Moon, they can not be seen in a single night or a single month. Some of them require special lighting conditions or phases of the Moon, and others, in addition, require very favorable librations of the Moon to bring them into view. The Lunar 100 is an observing list.  

Initial Grasslands Observatory Lunar 100 web cam imaging used the C-14 telescope at f/11 (154 inches; 3912 mm) and at f/22 (308 inches; 7823 mm) combined with a Philips ToUcam.

 

All images are oriented with the Lunar North at top and the Lunar East to the right
 
Lunar Feature Lunar Age in days  Thumbnail Image Comments
2. Earthshine 2 days Canon 20Da image of a two day old Moon taken through the Meade LXD75 8-inch f/4 telescope. Twenty-second exposure at ISO 800.
2. Earthshine   This image was taken at the 2004 Texas Star Party with a 5-inch f/5 refractor and a Nikon D100 digital camera.   tbh
5. Copernicus 9.1 days  
6. Tycho 9.1 days  
9. Clavius 9.1 days  
15. Straight Wall 9.1 days  
19. Alpine Valley 9.1 days  
23. Pico 9.1 days  
27. Archimedes 9.1 days  
45. Maurolycus  

 

The large crater in the lower left hand corner is Maurolycus, and the crater above the center of the image is Buch. These craters are in the Southeastern sector of the Moon.  jem
67. Frau Mauro Formation 9.1 days  
83. Plato Craterlets 9.1 days  
 
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