| Home
Meeting Dates
News
Our
Aims
Links
Gallery
Reviews
New Images
NSAS Forum
How
to find us
Graham
Shelley Images
|
|
The meeting of the North Staffs Astronomical Society on June 5th 2007 sees the launch of Charles Wood's Lunar 100 challenge.
Tonight you should have received a laminated double sided card
detailing the Lunar 100 and a sheet showing the optimum night for
viewing items.
Objects in the Lunar 100 are arranged from the easiest to view to the
most difficult. This is more systematic than the haphazard approach
that produced the Messier list. Indeed, just by knowing a feature's
Lunar 100 number, you have some idea of how easy or challenging it will
be to see. For example, the Moon itself is L1, while L2 is earthshine
and L3 is the light/dark dichotomy between lunar highlands and maria
("seas").
Higher-numbered objects are smaller, less conspicuous, or positioned
closer to the limb, making them more challenging to locate and view.
Planetary scientist Charles Wood's Lunar 100 is a list of telescopic
sights designed to ignite interest in the Moon and enhance
understanding of its geology.
The Messier objects are scattered all over the sky, but all are
theoretically observable during marathon nights in March and April
every year. By contrast, the Lunar 100 are concentrated in just
½°of sky, yet they can't all be seen in a single night, or
even in a single month. Some lunar objects can be observed only with
grazing solar illumination, while others are albedo features that
require full-Moon conditions to be seen. And others are positioned near
(or sometimes even over) the limb of the Moon, requiring a very
favourable liberation to bring them into view.
How big a telescope do you need to view the Lunar 100? The smallest
features listed are 3 kilometers in diameter and thus nominally visible
in 3-inch telescopes employing magnifications of about 150× to
200×. And many can be found with smaller scopes at lower power.
But a few Lunar 100 objects — such as narrow rilles — are
best seen with 6- or 8-inch telescopes used at high power. The goal,
however, is not just to find the objects, but to understand what they
tell us abut the Moon.
The choices were principally governed by a desire to include features
that tell us something important or interesting about the Moon itself.
It is the society’s intention to start this initiative as a means to promote activity within.
At any time whenever a member has obtained their Lunar 100 a
certificate will be issued. We will need no proof of completing the
task – you will be only cheating yourself.
Some of the society’s members do not posses any instrument of
their own and I am sure that whilst some of the objects can be clearly
seen with the MK1 eyeball at some point you have to move over to
binoculars or even a scope.
I will gladly help any member to achieve their Lunar 100 by allowing
them to use my observatory – while I’m out observing.
Do not feel this is something you have to do or indeed it’s a
race it’s just purely done to promote a better understanding and
create activity.
|
