Unnamed rille near Rupes Recta

直壁附近不知名小月溪

9月14日日出前1小时拍的，受惠于香港的低纬度，当时月亮近天顶位置，视宁度十分理想。所以我尝试超指标的加个2x巴罗透镜用f/22拍摄。很讶异在2微米像素相机以11x焦比下，能够拍下一条跟直壁呈直角的不知名小月溪。1972年，香港太空馆创馆馆长廖庆齐先生于其香港上水自家天文台拍摄的同一区域获得美国天文联盟主协的天文摄影比赛冠军，评委认为从未有人试过能拍得如此清晰的伯特月溪。他的作品及自家天文台更于1974年4月荣登「天空与望远镜」杂誌封面专题。很幸福的是，我们今天在数码科技助力下，月面上比这更细小，仅一两百米尺度，只能从月球勘测轨道飞行器照相机影像或Google Moon上才有的小地貎也不难拍下来了，当然也是因为这个天文台选址在吐露港及船湾淡水湖畔，地理十分优越，让高解像度天文观测得以实行。

This image was took on Sep 14 and hour before Sun rise, when the Moon was near zenith here in Hong Kong, thanks to the rather low latitude. Seeing was very good, so I tried shooting at f/22 with a 2x barlow on, I am surprised that at higher than suggested focal ratio, at f/22 with this 2um pixel camera or 11 times the pixel size, I am able to capture the very faint unnamed rille perpendicular to Rupes Recta. In 1972, Mr. Joseph Liu, the founding curator of the Hong Kong Space Museum, captured images of the same lunar region from his private observatory in Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, and won champion in the astrophotography competition organized by the Astronomical League of the United States. The judges remarked that no one had ever succeeded in photographing the Birt Rille with such remarkable clarity. His work and private observatory were later featured on the cover story of Sky & Telescope magazine in April 1974. Fortunately, with the aid of modern digital technology, even finer lunar surface features, on scales of only one to two hundred meters and only appear on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images or Google Moon, can now be captured with ease. This was also made possible by the observatory’s advantageous location on the shores of Tolo Harbour and the Plover Cove Reservoir, which provided excellent environment for carrying out high-resolution astronomical observations.

方社长摄于星河科研社大美督天文台

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Photo: Savio Fong Director of Galaxy Scientific Group

Celestron EdgeHD14 telescope

SkyWatcher EQ8R Pro eq mount

ZWO ASI678MM camera

Carl Zeiss Abbe 2x Barlow

Astronomik ProPlanet 642 BP filter

Galaxy Scientific Group Tai Mei Tuk Observatory

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Reference:

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images, 

Google Moon image,