Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 6th.  The sun rises at 6:25.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 27 minutes, setting at 8:53.   The moon, at first quarter today, will set at 2:40 tomorrow morning.

Tonight’s moon reveals some great features.  Back in my early astronomy days, one of the odd thing I saw on the moon with my telescope at about this phase, was what appeared as a square crater on the moon.  Craters are supposed to be round.  This one was near the north pole of the moon.  It can be seen with a small telescope.  It was given the name Barrow.  I’ve since confirmed that it is indeed quite square, with a small crater, Barrow A sitting on one corner.  The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows this in great detail.  Also on the north end of the moon tonight is the Alpine Valley, which looks like a gash crossing the Lunar Alps.  Lunar mountain ranges tend to be named for earthly mountains, but are really crater walls.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

First quarter Moon at 10 p.m. May 6, 2014. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.

The square crater Barrow and the Alpine Valley as it would be seen in a telescope on May 6, 2014 at 10 p.m. Created using Virtual Moon Atlas.

The Barrow crater as imaged by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University, Virtual Moon Atlas.

Actually Barrow almost looks pentagonal in the above image.

The Alpine Valley as imaged by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University, Virtual Moon Atlas.