STILL MORE MATTERS LUNAR:

Molly continues here leisurely cruise down the seas of the Moon.

The last few nights have actually been quite good for skywatching here in Winnipeg, despite the bitter cold. So...I'll continue my tour of the lunar seas again. Look to item # 13 in the diagram at the left. This is the Mare Fecunditatis, the Sea of Fecunditity/Plenty, to the south east of the Sea of Tranquillity. The major feature visible in this area of the Moon with low power binoculars is the Langrenus crater to the immediate east of the midpoint of this Sea. You can see it on the diagram to the left to the immediate right.

South from the Sinus Asperitatus/Bay of Roughness to the southwest of the Sea of Tranquility is the Mare Nectaris, the Sea of Nectar. This lies to the immediate left of the Sea of Fecundity in the diagram above. The highlands dividing the two seas have been given the name of the Montes Pyrenees, after the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain.

Immediately to the north of Tranquillity is the Mare Serenitatis, the Sea of Serentity. This bounded on its western side (the left) by the Montes Apenninus and on its northeastern border by the Montes Caucasus. These mountains shade into the further range of the Montes Alpes to the west(the left), and then the Montes Jura even further to the west/left. These mountain ranges delineate the southern fringes of the Mare Frigoris/the Sea of Cold visible in low power binoculars as a thin dark strip towards the northern fringes of the Moon.

The Moon's features will be gone through in more detail during the next cycle, including how lunar features have been named. One more thing to note in matters lunar is that the planet Saturn now rises with the Moon, a little to its west in the constellation Leo. Galileo was the first to visualize the rings of this planet in 1610 His poorly designed telescope showed not "rings" but what he made out to be a triple planet. When the planet later presented its rings edgewise the triple planet effect disappeared and Galileo was exceedingly puzzled. It was only later, on March 25th 1655, that the Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens, using a much better telescope discovered the rings of Saturn for what they are. In the next few weeks Saturn will be ripe for viewing opportunities.