Rilles

[nighthound]

Lunar Rilles are surface cracks that are reminders of times when the Moon had a hot and active core. Many suface features are visible under high magnifications and are well preserved due to lack of atmosphere/weather to erode them. This was shot through an eyepiece with the Nikon 4300, which is why the image has a circular vignette. LX200 10" Telescope at f/6.3

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y67/Nighthd/Astrophotography/Lunar%20Photography/crks.jpg

NH

[JaredB]

Wonderful image Steve - I am going to pull my son over to check this one out with me. Just a tremendous amount of detail captured there as you mention.

[MGlennn]

Incredible detail...too cool :) :)

[Kevin]

I suspect those Rilles are not only deep but very wide, too. Neat shot!

[nighthound]

Thanks Jared, Mike and Kevin.

Without checking the nearby crater dimensions for scale reference I can't say exactly how wide these rilles are. But I can guess that they are at least a few miles wide at the widest point.

NH

[Jonathan]

More great info steve!! Very detailed and enjoyable image

[Harv]

Wow! What detail.

[nighthound]

Thanks very much everyone.

Although I now spend most of my time shooting deep sky objects, I'm still amazed what can be seen on the surface of the Moon - 240,000 miles away.

NH