Moon 8th Day

The weather was agreeable and the sky was clear, so its a good time to go out and take a look at the Moon,

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It turns out that the time was the best time to see a couple of unique features on the moon, and these showed up tonight.  I have marked them on the Feature photo for this portfolio.

Rupes Recta / The Straight Wall

First we can see Rupes Recta / The Straight Wall – a linear fault on the Moon, in the southeastern part of the Mare Nubium at 22.1°S 7.8°W. The name is Latin for straight cliff, although it is more commonly called the Straight Wall. This is the most well-known escarpment on the Moon,[2][3] and is a popular target for amateur astronomers.

When the sun illuminates the feature at an oblique angle at about day 8 of the Moon’s orbit, the Rupes Recta casts a wide shadow that gives it the appearance of a steep cliff. The fault has a length of 110 km, a typical width of 2–3 km, and a height of 240–300 m. Thus although it appears to be a vertical cliff in the lunar surface, in actuality the grade of the slope is relatively shallow.  To the west of this escarpment is the crater Birt, which is about 17 km in diameter. Also to the west is the Rima Birt rille. At the southern end is a group of hills often called the “Stag’s-Horn Mountain

Vallis Alpes

Vallis Alpes (Latin for “Alpine Valley”)[1] is a lunar valley feature that bisects the Montes Alpes range. It extends 166 km from the Mare Imbrium basin, trending east-northeast to the edge of the Mare Frigoris. The valley is narrow at both ends and widens to a maximum width of about 10 km along the middle stretch. The selenographic coordinates of the center of this feature are WikiMiniAtlas49.21°N 3.63°E

Moon Portfolios

Keywords: Moon eight Day, Rupes Recta, Vallis Alpes