“Previously Undocumented Feature” found on the Moon

OR, how to make a completely serendipitous find look like the culmination of a life's work

The months of May, June and most of July had been unfavorable for astronomy at the Starlight Observatory. Finally, in an act of frustration and defiance, I awoke about 5:30 AM on July 24, 2016 to go out to the observatory to see something. Since it was last quarter moon, I knew I would probably end up looking at the moon, but decided to start elsewhere. I really don't remember much of what I viewed, but I did end up on the moon. I usually like to “run the terminator”, meaning I like to view what's on the terminator, since that's where the shadows will delineate the high and low areas the best. This time, however, I noticed something I had never seen before, or at least I didn't remember seeing before. Between Montes Spitzbergen and Mons Pico was a dark area that I didn't recognize. So I decided to take an image of the area. For those of you who like to read the end of the book, and then fill in the details, it would appear that I have found a “previously undocumented feature” on the lunar surface. Is it scientifically important? I think the answer is, I don't know, but probably not. It's just “interesting”. But, for me, exciting. What follows is what I've managed to document to date.

After closing the observatory and coming inside. I processed the image to see exactly what I had. After processing, I decided I needed to find a lunar map to decide if I was really seeing something I hadn't seen before or not. The lunar map I used was the book by the Soviet lunar cartographer Antonin Rukl. It serves as a pretty good reference book of the features on the moon. The area of interest was to be found on plates 11 and 12 of his book. Plate 12 contains most of the area of interest. Shown below are plates 11 and 12 in a composite image made using Paint Shop Pro 7.

I couldn't see anything that looked like my image.

Shown below is my image and plate 12 from Rukl's book, roughly to the same scale. You can match up Montes Spitzbergen and the crater Kirch in both images when viewed this way.

I can see some shading in Rukl's map, but I think that is because of the difference in lunar soil reflectivity. Looking closely, his shading does not exactly match the contours of the area I have imaged. And I think I know why. The answer most likely can be found in the image below.

Time to jump ahead in the story. My image was reviewed by 2 members of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO, for short... not a dog food, by the way). It was these members that informed me that this is a “previously undocumented feature”. However, the important aspect at this point is the telling statement made by one of the members that what you see above is “the way most people see the moon when looking for features.” If you are not familiar with lunar observing, the thing to notice is that the sun is too the right in this image. The orientation of the image is that same as if you were looking at the moon with just your own eyes. That is to say, north is roughly up,and east is to the right. The terminator has “night” to the left and “day” to the right, so this is the morning terminator. This is the way you would see the moon if you went out after supper (I know, “supper” is a southern expression. But I'm in Georgia. What do you expect?) to look at the moon. In fact, this image was taken about 8 PM on October 8, 2016. Now that you know exactly where to look, you can see most of the valley as a difference in “color” or shade of gray (this is a black and white image). Now compare this image (sun to the east), with the original image, with the sun to the west.

Now the valley is very obvious. My crude measurements show it to be about 95 miles long, along its long (north-south) axis. It appears to be about 1/5 as wide, so it's maybe 20 to 25 miles wide, with a steeper slope on the eastern, or right, side. It appears to be about 300 feet deep. So the reason I suspect it hasn't been “seen” before is that if wasn't observed with the sun illuminating it (the valley) from the west and just along the terminator. In other words, I was simply at the right place at the right time.

What about a confirmation of this feature? That's the process I'm in now. The place I'm looking is at data, specifically a map, made by the Lunar Orbiting Laser Altimeter; LOLA, for short. I don't know if I can get the resolution of the LOLA map fine enough to place the valley on the LOLA map in the correct place to specifically confirm the finding, but I strongly suspect it will. The LOLA map does show a depression is the general area and nothing else seems to fit.

As an aside, look again at the image comparing my image to Rukl's plate 12. You might notice my image shows several craters that are not on Rukl's map. The two explanations that come to mind are 1) they weren't there when Rukl made his map, and there is recent evidence that there is quite a few craters being discovered since the 1970s, (see http://www.space.com/34372-new-moon-craters-appearing-faster-than-thought.html) or 2) they were there and Rukl decided to not include them for some reason. I have no idea which is true.

So. there you have it, I guess. I wonder if anything will ever become of it. For my part, it's been a fun adventure for the last 2 months.