Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, November 29th.  The sun will rise at 7:56.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 8 minutes, setting at 5:04.   The moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 10:02 this evening.

The moon tonight is a fat crescent with the small circular Sea of Crises visible near the upper edge.  Below that is the larger Sea of Fertility.  In a small telescope a double light streak will be visible on the floor of Fertility.  At the head of the streaks are two small odd shaped craters named Messier A and B.  Named after Charles Messier, comet hunter, and creator of the Messier catalog of some of the best deep sky objects for the amateur astronomer.  Anyway, the craters though small are distinctive and relatively new, less than a billion years ago.  The pair of small asteroids that hit the moon did so at a low angle to cause the spray of material to form those linear streaks.  A most interesting feature to explore on the moon,

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.

Addendum

The moon featuring the craters Messier A and B. Chart created using Virtual Moon Atlas

The Craters Messier A and B from Apollo 11. NASA