APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

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APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by APOD Robot » Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:53 am

Image Hesiodus Sunrise Ray

Explanation: Stark shadows of mountains and crater walls stand out along the lunar terminator, or shadow line between night and day, in this telescopic image. Of course, if viewed from the lunar surface near the terminator line, the Sun would be rising and still close to the lunar horizon. But the picture's inset at the left highlights a more elusive lunar sunrise phenomenon. Streaming through a gap in the eastern wall of 45 kilometer wide Hesiodus crater, the low-angle sunlight produces a long sunrise ray playing along the otherwise shadowed crater floor. Sunrise rays are short-lived and can be rewarding to spot for Moon enthusiasts with telescopes. Seen in Hesiodus and other craters, the ray timing can be calculated based on the observer's location. This picture of a first quarter Moon was recorded at 23:45 UT on February 22nd from Stuttgart, Germany. In the inset, the larger crater Pitatus is at the right. For location, Hesiodus and Pitatus are circled at the bottom of the picture.

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neufer
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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by neufer » Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:37 pm

Image
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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by biddie67 » Sun Mar 28, 2010 1:13 am

Mr. Neuendorffer: I'm confused - I know the whimsy is probably lost when you try to explain the relationship of your altered Mandelbrot_and_Julia picture to today's APOD but ... help? Is your horizontal center line somehow representing the "terminator" line between the light and dark sides of the fractal?

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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by wonderboy » Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:12 am

I don't get it, the crater looks no different to me.
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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by DavidLeodis » Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:30 am

Nice image. The Moon along with all its phases is always a great thing to see by the naked eye. Interestingly (or not!), clicking on the "mountains" link at the start of the explanation to this APOD brings up the same APOD! :)

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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by neufer » Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:39 am

biddie67 wrote:Mr. Neuendorffer: I'm confused - I know the whimsy is probably lost when you try to explain the relationship of your altered Mandelbrot_and_Julia picture to today's APOD but ... help? Is your horizontal center line somehow representing the "terminator" line between the light and dark sides of the fractal?
It was supposed to represent the long sunrise ray...
but mostly I was just intrigued by the concatenated circles.
Image
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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by biddie67 » Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:00 pm

(( chuckle )) Lord of the Whimsey, for sure!!

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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by bystander » Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:09 pm

wonderboy wrote:I don't get it, the crater looks no different to me.
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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by neufer » Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:04 pm

wonderboy wrote:I don't get it, the crater looks no different to me.
http://www.sjaa.net/eph/0801/h.html wrote:
Image Image
As observed by eye in a telescope (i.e., rotated 180º)
Image
Roman bronze bust thought to be Hesiod found at Herculaneum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiod wrote:
<<Hesiod (Greek: Ἡσίοδος Hēsíodos) was a Greek oral poet and is often identified as the first economist. Hesiod and Homer have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often paired. Scholars disagree about who lived first, and the fourth-century BC sophist Alcidamas' Mouseion even brought them together in an imagined poetic agon, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod. Hesiod's writings serve as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: APOD: Hesiodus Sunrise Ray (2010 Mar 27)

Post by biddie67 » Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:26 am

The sun ray phenomenom through the gap in this crater wall seems to hold the same fascination as the positions of the sun's light through openings in ancient temples did to those ancients .... only this one on the moon was created by natural forces - not by man.