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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Alphonsus and Arzachel
APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 17 Jul,2021 | Image Credit & Copyright: Noel Donnard

Posted on 07/17/2021 5:45:13 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Point your telescope at tonight's first quarter Moon. Along the terminator, the shadow line between night and day, you might find these two large craters staring back at you with an owlish gaze. Alphonsus (left) and Arzachel are ancient impact craters on the north eastern shores of Mare Nubium, the lunar Sea of Clouds. The larger Alphonsus is over 100 kilometers in diameter. A low sun angle highlights the crater's sharp 1.5 kilometer high central peak in bright sunlight and dark shadow. Scouting for potential Apollo moon landing sites, the Ranger 9 spacecraft returned closeup pictures of Alphonsus before it crashed in the crater just northeast (toward the upper left) of its central mountain in 1965. Alpetragius, between Alphonsus and Arzachel, is the small crater with the deeply shadowed floor and overly large central beak.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 07/17/2021 5:45:13 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 07/17/2021 5:45:30 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; America_Right; AZ .44 MAG; BBB333; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

πŸͺ 🌟 🌌 πŸ”


3 posted on 07/17/2021 5:46:29 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

4 posted on 07/17/2021 5:55:42 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: MtnClimber

Turn it 90 degrees and it looks like Frosty The Snowman.


5 posted on 07/17/2021 5:59:37 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: blueunicorn6

Damn, it does.

Corn cob pipe and a button nose.

5.56mm


6 posted on 07/17/2021 6:11:16 PM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho need to go.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Exactly!


7 posted on 07/17/2021 6:13:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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