Every amateur astronomer starts off loving the Moon. They eagerly set up their telescopes in their garden, squint into the eyepiece and check what they can see against charts in books or magazines, looking for the 'celebrity' lunar features they've heard and read so much about. They whisper in the darkness as they make one discovery after another. "Ah... so that's Copernicus!" "That must be Tycho!" "Wow, they must be the Apennine Mountains." "Is that... yes, I think it is... the Sea of Tranquility!"
But after a while, the love affair between many new amateur astronomers and the Moon cools. They've seen all the 'good stuff' - the major craters, the most obvious mountain ranges, the ripples on the floors of the seas, and so on - and the Moon has begun to look, and feel, a bit 'samey'.
Frustrated with the inhibiting lunar glare, the astronomer begins to actually resent the Moon they had previously loved so much. They turn their back on it and avoid it as much as possible, only going out to observe the night sky when they know the Moon isn't going to be there.
But fear not. We're going to help those of you who have fallen out of love with the Moon to fall in love with it all over again by showing you 10 off-the-beaten-track lunar features you've perhaps never seen before, and nudging you back to a couple of better-known ones that deserve another look.
1. Langrenus
When the Moon is young, either a crescent a few days old or on the way towards first quarter, look towards its right-hand side through binoculars and you'll see a bright spot on the eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis.
Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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Esta historia es de la edición August 2023 de BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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