Schiller Home

Move your mouse over the picture to see the names of the various craters.

This area is just to the south of Schickard. The most prominent feature is Schiller, a genuinely elliptical crater 184 Km long and 43 Km wide with a depth of 3900 metres. It may have been formed by the fusion of two circular craters or possibly by a grazing impact.  Either way, it was formed about 3,900 million years ago. The floor is very flat to the south-east but much more tormented to the north-west.
The scale markers are 100 Km north, east, and approximately in the direction of minimum scale.
The picture was taken with a ToUcam attached to my LX200 on 25th October 2004 at 22:28 UT, when the Moon was 12.6 days old.
A mosaic of this picture and one to the north and one to the south can be seen here.

Libration: latitude +3° 37', longitude +5° 3'
Solar inclination: 0.0°
Lunar Phase: 26.3°
Colongitude: 58.4°
Date and Time: 25th October 2004 at 22:28 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus (FL 2500 mm)
Capture: K3CCDTools. High gamma, 1/500", 0% gain, 310 frames
Processing: Registax. 57 frames stacked. Wavelet 1,2 = 10


Another picture of Schiller, this time in infra-red light with the light coming from the other direction. Unfortunately this picture is tilted rather badly, but the scale markers show which way is north.  I have gone to town somewhat in labelling the minor craters in this picture, but it never ceases to intrigue me when I find lettered craters referring to larger craters which are not the nearest large crater (like Schiller C here which is very close indeed to Phocylides A).
The LPOD for 12 May 2004 pointed out that there is evidence for a very old 3-ringed impact basin here, discovered by Bill Hartmann and Gerard Kuiper in the 1960s.  Using the LPOD as a guide, I have attempted to show the three rings with dashed lines in the mouseover.

The picture was taken in infra-red light with a ToUcam attached to my LX200 on 29th August 2005 at 04:47 UT, when the Moon was 24.5 days old.
The scale markers are approximately 100 Km north and east.

Libration: latitude -6° 11', longitude +5° 22'
Solar inclination: 1.0°
Lunar Phase: 241.0°
Colongitude: 204.1°
Date and Time: 29th August 2005 04:47 UT
Camera: ToUcam 740K with IR-pass filter
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus (FL 2500 mm)
Capture: K3CCDTools. Mid gamma, 1/25", 53% gain, 339 frames
Processing: Registax. 138 frames stacked. Wavelets 1 = 10, 2 = 5, histogram 0-200


Another picture at about the same phase as the first picture above.

The picture was taken in green light with a DMK 21AF04 attached to my LX200 on 27th March 2010 at 23:40 UT, when the Moon was 12.3 days old.
The scale markers are approximately 100 Km north and east.

Libration: latitude +5° 50', longitude -0° 16'
Solar inclination: 1.5°
Lunar Phase: 28.9°
Colongitude: 61.4°
Date and Time: 27th March 2010 23:37 UT
Camera: DMK 21AF04
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus (FL 2500 mm) with Astronomik OIII filter
Capture: ICcapture. 1/91", gain 870, 3476 frames
Processing: Registax. 5 alignment points, 362 frames stacked. Wavelets 1-2 = 10


This picture is very similar to the picture two above except that the libration is almost exactly opposite.  The libration in longitude is very favourable but that in latitude very unfavourable for this area.  This moves the colongitude westward and you can see that the shadow in Schiller is much more extensive than it was in the earlier picture.  Part of the middle ring shown above between Schiller and Segner is very clear in this picture.
The picture was taken with a DMK 21AF04 attached to my LX200 on 22nd October 2011 at 05:24 UT, when the Moon was 24.3 days old.
The scale markers are approximately 100 Km north and west.

Libration: latitude +6° 46', longitude -6° 16'
Solar inclination: -1.1°
Lunar Phase: 244.1°
Colongitude: 212.7°
Date and Time: 22 October 2011 05:24 UT
Camera: DMK 21AF04
Telescope: LX200 at prime focus and CLS filter
Capture: ICCapture. Gamma 10, 1/618", gain 1023, 3396 frames
Processing: Registax6. 8 alignment points, 100 frames per alignment point stacked, Gaussian wavelets Scheme 1
Focus Magic 2,100.
		Home      Back to SW Quadrant