Observing Plato's craterlets with smallish scopes


A few nights ago, with the 9 day old moon only 20 or so degrees above the
s.s.w. horizon, I attempted to observe any of the craterlets (or a hint of
them) on Plato’s wonderfully smooth floor. It had been a hot day and, just
after sundown, it was still pretty toasty. The atmosphere was slightly
hazy/dirty and turbulence was present. There was also an expansive and
wispy cloud right in front of the moon. Obviously, this was not a great
night for attempting my goal, but I was off work the next day and which
gave me a whacky, “why the heck not?,” attitude.

Using my 114mm reflector — my second smallest scope — I slipped in a 24mm
eyepiece and found the image to be surprisingly good (but what isn’t with a
1″ focal length EP?). Next I inserted a 12.5mm EP and the image still held
up fairly well. Plato was now big enough to reveal its crisp, serrated rim
but no craterlets. Finally, using a 7.5mm EP, atmospheric issues became a
limiting factor. I could still get a halfway decent glimpse of the crater
in moments of better seeing, yet no craterlets were apparent. Had
conditions been better, it didn’t seem impossible that my 6mm or 3.8mm
eyepieces may have produced the illusive craterlets.

So I put it to you, what is the smallest aperture scope which you have used
to successfully yield Plato’s craterlets?


--
Martin R. Howell

"The Astro Post"
www.theastropost.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

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