The 101 km walled plain Plato sits at the northern
boundary of Mare Imbrium and the southern edge of Mare Frigoris.
Note the triangular section of wall on the western side that has broken
away and slid down into the crater interior. Montes Teneriffe and
lone 2400 m high peak Pico below center left. North is up.
25cm Newtonian, video capture image
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Morning (waxing moon) light on Plato causes a number
of long, jagged shadows to be cast by the deceptively smooth looking western
wall.
Early Monday morning (1230UT 01Nov99) I spent some
time viewing the waning Moon with a 25cm Newtonian and though seeing conditions
were very transparent, sadly, they were also extremely turbulent.
Never the less, among other choice features that I spent some time examining,
I looked closely at the shadows on the floor of Plato cast by its eastern
wall. The sun was still relatively high so the shadows were not as
long as I had hoped to catch this lunation, but one shadow north of the
triangular section of wall that has slumped towards the crater floor was
very prominent. Often it is difficult to identify which section of
wall is actually casting the longer shadows, but in this case the higher
elevation was brighter than the wall sections on either side and easy to
identify.
There were two sections of the shadow that suggested
that they may be made by the small gaps on either side of the broken away
triangular section of wall. The northern section of the broken wall
appears to have a small peak on it as it cast a longer shadow, then the
shadow shortens slightly on the northern side possibly showing the gag
between the broken section and crater wall. The southern gap is less
apparent, if visible at all, as the shadow joins the wall very near where
the gap should appear. But the impression is a shadow showing the
gap.
25cm Newtonian, video capture images
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