Page 80 - BBC Sky at Night Beginners Guide to Astronomy - 2017 UK

TOP TEN

MOON SIGHTS

OUR CELESTIAL NEIGHBOUR HAS ENOUGH TO KEEP
ASTRONOMERS BUSY FOR A LIFETIME, BUT HERE ARE
10 HIGHLIGHTS FOR TELESCOPES AND BINOCULARS

CRATER GRIMALDI
SIZE: 173km across
TYPE: Basin
APPEARANCE: Visible even to the
naked eye, this dark basin reveals
fantastic detail through binoculars
and telescopes, such as eroded walls,
ridges and low hills.

RIMAE SIRSALIS
SIZE: 425km long
TYPE: Rille system
APPEARANCE: This series of fault
lines is visible even in a small telescope,
which will reveal Sirsalis’s main crack
running straight for over 300km
through a cratered environment.

CRATER COPERNICUS
SIZE: 94km across
TYPE: Impact crater
APPEARANCE: One of the Moon’s
recognisable features and the result of
quite a recent impact, a scope reveals
terraced crater walls and central peaks
rising from the fl oor below.

VALLIS ALPES
SIZE: 155km long
NASA X 9, STEVE MARSH, WILL GATER APPEARANCE: A clean gouge
AGE: Valley and rille
through a mountainous region, the
18km-wide fault line can be easily
visible in small scope and binoculars
as a dark stripe in a lighter landscape.

80 skyatnightmagazine.com 2012