Hitchhiker's Guide to Rukl Chart 46

Sinus Asperitatis (David North <d _at_ timocharis.com>)

Glowing at sunrise in early February -- and before the termintor reached them -- were the tips of four peaks in Sinus Asperitatis, north of Theophilus. One odd example (first noticed by this page's author, Akkana) had two ridges extending north and south to create a fair imitation of Saturn... it looked like an occulted planet emerging from the terminator!

Identification was not a simple matter since the surrounding terrain was still "in the night", but at best guess it was part of the semighost Theophilus E.

Cyrillus:

Theophilus (JRF <freeman _at_ netcom.com>)

This prominent double crater is a "landmark" feature, easily recognized and useful for orientation.

First light in Cyrillus, Theophilus and Catharina (...Akkana)

Fracastorius, Piccolomini and the Altai Scarp are beautiful in any kind of light, but on 6/6 at around 9:30, at very early sunrise when only part of the Scarp was illuminated, I caught some other weird phenomena: a very prominent ridge extending out from Beaumont, unnamed in Rukl, which I will take the liberty of calling Dorsa Beaumont, and an interesting W-shaped pattern extending into the terminator which turned out to be the well-known trio of Catharina just beginning to poke into the light.

See also the discussion of their possible relation to Mare Nectaris on chart 57, and Morio Higashida's image of Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina.

Hypatia has a break in its eastern wall, and at about 8pm PST (on 3/4/98), a thin ray was just beginning to spill through the gap in the wall and all the way across the crater floor to the other side, where another break in the wall, just south of where the ray ended, created a second ray streaming out of Hypatia onto the terrain west of the crater. It was a lovely sight -- the best lunar ray I've observed so far.

Rima Hypatia (JRF <freeman _at_ netcom.com>)

Small rille just south of Moltke, close to the Apollo 11 landing site, which is on Rukl chart 35.

Rilles near Thophilus/Delamore and Kant D (David North <d _at_ timocharis.com>)

A little more than half way along a direct line from Theophilus to Delamore I spotted a curious little structure that looked more or less like a short rille, but have not been able to confirm it with any present charts. Another interesting tidbit similar to that presented itself to me in Kant D, a more or less flooded semighost ruined mess with a flat floor. Both general areas present a wealth of details and confusing terrain.

Mons Penck (Robert Brauer)

At 4 km high and only 30 km wide, it is a huge mountain massif (4th highest on the Moon). To put it into perspective, the better known Mt. Pico (L23 on the Lunar 100 list) is only 2 km high, and the Altai Scarp further south (L6 on the Lunar 100) is only 4 km high at it's highest point. The answer to why this 13,000 foot pinnacle has escaped our attention is that we are looking nearly straight down on it. Only the shadow cast at 1 or 2 days before first quarter reveals it. Imagine being on the Moon and seeing a mountain as high as Mauna Kea looming over the Bay of Asperity.

Theophilus (ALPO)

There is also an ALPO Selected Areas Program page on Theophilus.

Hypatia Ray (...Akkana)