Fra Mauro 
Move your mouse over the picture to see the names of the various features.
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This area is usually designated as the northern part of the Mare Nubium with Oceanus Procellarum
further to the west (in the shadow in this picture). However in the 1970s the region was renamed Mare
Insularum (The Sea of Islands), but there appears to be scanty evidence that an associated basin actually
exists. After both Surveyor 3 and Apollo 12 landed here the area was called Mare Cognitum (The
Known Sea). However Wood in his book The Modern Moon places Mare Cognitum some 200 Km
south of the Apollo-12 landing site around the crater Kuiper.
The area contains the landing sites of both Apollo 12 and Apollo 14.
The scale markers indicate approximately 100 Km north and east.
The picture was taken with my LX200 on 18th February 2005 at 20:57 UT when the Moon was 10.0 days old.
Date and Time: 18th February 2005 20:57 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K
Telescope: LX200
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, 1/250", 10% gain, 455 frames
Processing: Registax. 275 frames stacked. Wavelets 1-2 = 10, wavelet 3 = 5
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An ancient and battered crater, Fra Mauro is about 4,000 million years old. It is 100 km
in diameter and appears to have been flooded by lava from Mare Nubium. Parry, on the other hand,
is believed to be of the same age but looks as though it may have avoided flooding (although its flat
floor may indicate otherwise). It is 50 Km in diameter and only 560 metres deep, which
suggests that it has been flooded but that its walls were higher than those of Fra Mauro.
Apollo 14 landed just north of here. Click on the image below to see a maosaic of the area
indicating the landing site.
The scale marks in the bottom left-hand corner indicate approximately 50 Km north and east.
The picture was taken with my LX200 on 7th October 2004 at 03:18 UT when the Moon was 22.8 days old.
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Click on the image to see a mosaic covering a larger area around Fra Mauro. |
Date and Time |
7th October 2004 03:18 UT |
Camera |
ToUcam 740K |
Telescope |
LX200 with X2 teleadaptor lens |
Capture |
K3CCDTools. High gamma, 1/50", 33% gain, 313 frames |
Processing |
Registax. 162 frames stacked. Wavelet 1-3 = 10 |
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