74% moon

 

Opened up the observatory and started to adjust the focus, connect the camera etc. and had just started taking pictures when heavy snowstorms came. But between these I was able to take pictures of tonight's moon which was 74% full. In the pictures you can see large craters like Copernicus, Plato, Archimedes and lava fields like Mare Imbrium with high mountain ranges Montes Alpes. Montes Alpes (Lunar Alps) is a prominent mountain range on the northern side of the moon, named after the Alps on Earth, and known for its highest mountain, Mons Blanc (3,600 m), and the impressive valley Vallis Alpes. The chain extends for about 220 km in a crescent shape, with a part bordering the lunar sea Mare Imbrium, and is one of the moon's most distinctive formations. Vallis Alpes is a lunar valley that divides the Montes Alpes area into two parts. It extends 166 km from the Mare Imbrium basin and trends east-northeast to the edge of Mare Frigoris. The valley is narrow at both ends and widens to a maximum width of about 10 km along the midsection. Copernicus is a prominent impact crater on the Moon located in the eastern Oceanus Procellarum. The crater is 96 km in diameter and 3.8 km deep. According to samples taken by Apollo 12 astronauts, the crater is about 800 million years old.