April 6, 2021

Crater Plato and Laplace Beach (Mar. 2021)


The larger crater on the right is Plato, and the mountains arching to the left of it include craters all named Plato (M, B, C, F, etc.) or Laplace (D, B, L, M, etc.).  The curve ends at Laplace Promontorium, and down from that is Laplace A.  The two craters down and to the right of Laplace Promontorium are Helicon (left) and La Verrier.

Some things to note about the image: 

1) The long shadow cast by Laplace Promontorium.  Using trigonometry, one could figure the height of the Promontorium by the length of the shadow.

2) Lines of craters.  A small, bright line to the right of La Verrier is a row of craters probably formed when a meteorite that was broken in pieces struck one piece after the other.  There is another just a little to the right of that line that shows as a darker line.

3) The dark canyon extending straight down the lower slope of Plato.

4) The twisting, winding canyon extending down from Plato's upper left wall.

5) The streaks in the topography running up along the upper right side of the image.  What could possibly make such a feature?  It's as if some extraterrestrial giant pulled a rake along the moon.

This is best 1200 of 2000 images taken with the CFF 290 Classical Cassegrain at f/13.5 with the QHY5iii485c camera.