Move your mouse over the picture to see the names of the various craters.
Considering the size of the Imbrium basin, the Alps are a relatively small mountain chain. They extend for only about 250 Km and the highest peak (aptly named Mont Blanc) rises to only 3,600 metres. Compare this with the Apennines, 600 Km long and rising to 5,400 metres. Cutting through the mountains is the Alpine Valley, a remarkable cleft cutting right through the range and the rubbly foothills to their north-east. The large crater Plato more or less marks the northern end of the Alps.
The picture was taken with a ToUcam attached to my LX200 on 10th December 2005, when the Moon was 9.8 days old.
Date and Time: 10th December 2005 17:26 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus and IR-pass filter
Capture: K3CCDTools. Low gamma, 1/25", 10% gain, 483 frames
Processing: Registax. 182 frames stacked. Wavelets 1 = 10, 2 = 5
This is essentially the same area but with the light coming from the other direction. Indeed it is late evening in the Alps and the Alpine Valley is deep in shadow. However Plato is some 12° further west and is still in sunshine and the western rim is casting some nice shadows onto the floor. The shadow of Mount Piton shows what a steep and isolated mountain it is sticking out of the lava that fills the Imbrium basin.
The picture was taken with a ToUcam attached to my LX200 on 12th December 2006, when the Moon was 21.7 days old.
Date and Time: 12th December 2006 04:00 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, 1/25", 20% gain, 468 frames
Processing: Registax. 8 alignment points, 448 frames stacked. Wavelets 1-2 = 10, gamma = 1.3, histogram 15-200
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