Two views of Rupes Recta
Sketching the Moon is an ancient and still widely practised art. It requires patience and plenty of time and must be an excellent way to familiarise yourself with the lunar terrain. Cameras are very good at picking up subtle detail and shading missed by the human eye but the advantage of a drawing is that it is a faithful representation of what you can actually see through the eyepiece. For this week’s Image of the Week I have borrowed the most recent LPOD (Lunar Picture of the Day), a drawing of Rupes Recta (the straight wall) in Mare Nubium at 22.1°S 7.8°W . This 110 km long linear rille is 240-300 m high and 2.5 km wide. Although not very steep the rille casts a dramatic shadow when illuminated by a low Sun.
Rupes recta, and craters Birt, Thebit, Thebit A and Thebit L. Both images have been rotated so that south is up.
 Frank McCabe’s drawing using a |
 LRO view |
The LROC image was taken at a much higher illumination angle but lunar features clearly match and the amount of detail in the drawing is remarkable. In these images the trio of overlapping craters Thebit, Thebit A and Thebit L are to the left of Rupes Recta and Birt crater is to the right.
Moon Zoo 