The Lunar 100

The Moon is around for a good portion of every month so why not make the most of it. The Lunar 100 is to the Moon what the Messier catalogue is to deep sky objects.

I always find it useful to set myself little projects in order to focus (pun intended) my observing or imaging, otherwise I go outside and think “what shall I do now”. On my own website I set myself projects and targets, the Lunar 100 being one of them.

The Lunar 100 was created by Planetary Scientist Charles A. Wood in the April 2004 edition of Sky and Telescope. It is a list of the most interesting Lunar features, arranged in order of difficulty, with L1 being the easiest (the Moon!) to L100 (Mare Marginis, only visible when libration allows). It contains interesting regions, craters, basins, mountains, rilles and domes that typify Lunar morphology.

Examples include:

• L5 Copernicus – Archetypal large complex crater
• L15 Straight Wall – Best example of a lunar fault
• L27 Archimedes – Large crater lacking central peak
• L66 Hadley Rille – Lava channel near Apollo 15 landing site
• …see below for a full list

However you do it – observing, drawing or imaging, keep a record of what you do, even if it is only a tick list,  so you can look back on it and return to some of the more interesting features again. Many features can be observed using small  telescopes. Some of the later ones may require a larger (6 inch plus) instrument.

If you manage to image or observe any of the Lunar 100, why not post your images and observations to our Flickr group, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

Here is a list from Wikipedia, with links to individual  items, of the Lunar 100. To find the objects, use a Moon atlas such as the excellent and free  Virtual Moon Atlas Pro.

Mark Phillips