| Rupes Recta The Straight Wall |
| Sunrise on the 8-day moon, and the base of the steeply sloped Rupes Recta fault (top, left of center) is a boldly etched dark black shadow, earning it the title "The Straight Wall". As the sun rises higher, the shadows are lost, but the feature will re-appear sixteen days later (24 day moon), as the sun strikes the face of the wall, this time transforming it into a gleaming white scarp. Many features are seen in greatest detail as the terminator sweeps by, accentuating their contours with the long shadows that are cast. |
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| The northern stretch of the terminator was also imaged during this session, and spans the Mare Imbrium area. These shots are from a single one-second ISO 100, 48-bit image that was taken on 09-Feb-2003 with an 8" Mak-Newt and Canon D60 digital SLR through a stacked pair of TeleVue Powermates (2x and 4x). The original image is 3072 x 2048 pixels, these images have been rotated 90 deg CW and reduced to 450 x 400 and 550 x 825 respectively. Processing done in Images Plus and final polish with Adobe PhotoShop. |
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| The cropped inset below reveals more detail around the Wall, with wrinkle ridges in the adjacent Mare completing a near perfect circle with the surrounding highlands and hinting at a possible early impact at the site. Abundant smaller impacts occured later in the area's development. The triple crater formation Thebit lies on the Eastern wall, with yet another smaller circular pattern extending to the Wall, with Purbach H at the southernmost portion. |