Object
............................................ Moon
Constellation .............................. Ophiuchus
RA / DEC
.....................................
16h:37m.13sec /
-19°
15m.14sec
Distance + Ang. diameter......... 369.079.09 km /
0° 32m 23 sec
Date + Time ............................... 09/07/2014 - 19:50 UTC
Location ....................................
"Nunki Observatory" - Skiathos
Optics .........................................
Officina Stellare Advanced RILA 400
f/5.25
Tools ..........................................
The SKY X
Camera .....................................
SBIG STXL11002
with
FW8G-STXL (Astrodon filters)
Exposure Time.......................
Ha ( 3nm): 6 X 0.01 sec
More Details ...........................
Environment Temperature : 25oC Camera Temperature -30οC
Mount ....................................... Paramount
ME
Guiding .................................... Unguided
Processing Details ................ Photoshop ,
Registax 6
Notes ........................................ Weather: Clear
Transparence: Mediun Humidity : 85%
Target details ......................... The Moon
(Latin: Luna) is the Earth's only
natural satellite.Although not the largest natural satellite in the
Solar System, it is the largest relative to the size of the object
it orbits (its primary) and, after Jupiter's satellite Io, it is
the second most dense satellite among those whose densities are
known.
The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the
same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill
between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent
impact craters. It is the most luminous object in the sky after the
Sun. Although it appears a very bright white, its surface is
actually dark, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of
worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of
phases have, since ancient times, made the Moon an important
cultural influence on language, calendars, art, and mythology. The
Moon's gravitational influence produces the ocean tides and the
slight lengthening of the day. The Moon's current orbital distance
is about thirty times the diameter of Earth, causing it to have an
apparent size in the sky almost the same as that of the Sun. This
allows the Moon to cover the Sun nearly precisely in total solar
eclipse. This matching of apparent visual size is a coincidence. The
Moon's linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate
of 3.82±0.07 cm per year, but this rate is not constant.
The Moon is thought to have formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago, not
long after Earth. Although there have been several hypotheses for
its origin in the past, the current most widely accepted explanation
is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant
impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body.
The Moon is the only celestial body other than Earth on which humans
have currently set foot. The Soviet Union's Luna programme was the
first to reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft in 1959; the United
States' NASA Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to
date, beginning with the first manned lunar orbiting mission by
Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between 1969 and
1972, with the first being Apollo 11. These missions returned over
380 kg of lunar rocks, which have been used to develop a geological
understanding of the Moon's origin, the formation of its internal
structure, and its subsequent history.
After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited by
only unmanned spacecraft. Of these, orbital missions have dominated:
Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States, and the European
Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters, which have contributed
to confirming the discovery of lunar water ice in permanently
shadowed craters at the poles and bound into the lunar regolith. The
post-Apollo era has also seen two rover missions: the final Soviet
Lunokhod mission in 1973, and China's ongoing Chang'e 3 mission,
which deployed its Yutu rover on 14 December 2013.
Future manned missions to the Moon have been planned, including
government as well as privately funded efforts. The Moon remains,
under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for
peaceful purposes.
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