Over the South Pole

December 22, 2007

Uploaded 12/29/07

South is up in this image, more info below.

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Image Key to Features around Pole

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 An extremely favorable southern lunar libration occured on December 22-23rd, and this image taken on that date reveals features seldom seen around the moons south polar region. Of great interest in the comming decades, is the mountain Malapert. The top of this mountain is a "Peak of Eternal Light", which means it is in sunlight nearly all the time. This makes it the choice of NASA to locate a permanent lunar base on. Just behind it, is the actual pole, where permanently dark crater bottoms may contain cometary ices for fuel and water.

Processing: 200/1000 best frames, MAP 35 alignment in Registax, Regulated Van Cittert Deconvolution in PixInsight Pro, Levels and Contrast Masking In Photoshop CS3, Focus Magic Plugin.

Instrument: 12.5" f/5 with 1.5x Barlow Platform: Astrophysics AP1200 CCD Camera: Image Source DMK 31AU03.AS Filter: Hoya R72 Exposure: 1/108 sec 15fps Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing Better than average, Transparency 8/10 Outside Temperature: 32F Processing: Registax, PixInsight Pro, Photoshop CS3, Focus Magic Plugin