 |
| Crater Clavius. 200mm SCT + DMK |
NASA's Sofia telescope has discovered the signature of water on the moon in the area of Clavius. The amounts are quite low however, and reports indicate that it is still 100 x less than what can be found in the Sahara desert!
This latest news released a couple of days ago by NASA supports the ARTEMIS mission planned for more lunar exploration in the immediate future. The European Space agency has some future plans for a moon village - something which would need plenty of water supplies. Water is a heavy cargo and therefore very expensive to lift off the planet and so both the moon and Mars are seen as possible placed for future settlement.
The above image was captured by Znith Astronomy Observatory way back in August 8th, 2011 using a 200mm SCT and DMK camera. Transparency and seeing were excellent as can be testified by the clarity and detail achieved.
I strongly encourage lunar imagers to revisit this great crater named after Christophorus Clavius (mathematician & astronomer, 1537 and 1612) and celebrate this discovery.