Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris for Monday, April 27th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 8:43, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:36. The Moon, 3 days before first quarter, will set at 1:26 tomorrow morning.

If my Moon charting software is correct this is the one evening out of the month when the central peak of the crater Theophilus catches the first rays of the rising Sun, while the crater floor is in shadow. It kind of looks like a bulls eye. It can be spotted with binoculars on the inside of the crescent, on the terminator, the sunrise line about half way between the ends of the crescent. Theophilus is 61 miles (101 km) in diameter. A telescope of any size with 30 to 50 power magnification will really bring out the detail. More magnification may be warranted, but if the bigger image becomes fuzzy, back off the power. It may be the diameter of your telescope due to the wave nature of light or the atmosphere you’re looking through that’s causing the problem.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Moon as it should appear at 10 p.m. tonight April 27, 2020 EDT (2:00 UT the 28th UT) with Theophilus on the terminator. Created with Stellarium.

Theophilus at sunrise with the Sun illuminating the central peak and the far crater wall. Theophilus’ diameter is 61 miles or 101 kilometers in diameter. The crater walls rise 13 ,3000 feet or 4,400 meters above the crater floor, and the central mountain with four peaks rises 4,600 feet or 1,400 meters above the crater floor. Image and information from Virtual Moon Atlas. This image needs to be rotated clockwise about 45 degrees to match the image above.