The images taken by Luna 13 showing its shadow are pretty cool too.

Were any other UK members lucky enough to attend 'An Evening With Alan Bean' in Pontefract, West Yorkshire last Thursday night?

It was a very memorable occasion to hear Captain Bean recount his experiences on Apollo 12 and Skylab, not to mention his fine artistic accomplishments.

Hearing how pete Conrad ordered Alan and fellow crewmate Dick Gordon to 'poop' before reaching lunar orbit so they weren't distracted when they arrived was a high point!

Getting my book signed and shaking the hand of the 4th man to walk on the Moon was an experience I will never forget.

A fantastic night.

Captain Bean mentioned he will be at an autograph show at Heathrow, London before flying back to Houston on Tuesday, so hopefully many more Apollo enthusiasts will get to meet this remarkable and talented man.

That's great.

Nice to see how the close up of Surveyor 1 relates to the larger views of Flamsteed.

Interesting piece on NS Space suggesting dark spots may be due to sublimation triggered by sunlight:

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12751

I've always wondered if some sort of interaction with the solar wind is causing the darkening on Iapetus leading hemisphere;after all, it's the part that hits the Sun's particle wind head on.

Interesting piece on NS Space suggesting dark spots may be due to sublimation triggered by sunlight:

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12751

I've always wondered if some sort of interaction with the solar wind is causing the darkening on Iapetus leading hemisphere;after all, it's the part that hits the Sun's particle wind head on.

I mentioned the huge basins on Iapetus to Dr Nimmo while writing the following feature on the Moon's South-Pole Aitken basin:

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn11625

He seemed intrigued but I'm not sure if he looked into it further. I also pointed out that Dione has a large south polar basin and crater evidence suggests it may have reversed its leading hemisphere in the past; both possible evidence of reorientation.

I wonder why Herschel and Tethys have not reoriented their large basins in a similar manner to the Moon.

Thanks Phil!

This is a brilliant resource and I'm sure it will prove highly useful.

I remember the bad old days when I used to trawl through Lunar Orbiter images on NASA microfiche!

Lunar Orbiter images have a character all of their own and I'm sure they will remain relevant for many decades yet.

Is anyone else struck by how similar the ridge on Helene is to the larger ridge on Iapetus?

Could the two have formed in a similar way, albeit at different scales?

The self portraits of Spirit and Opportunity are very impressive:

Spirit: http://astronomyonline.org/SolarSystem/Ima...elfPortrait.jpg

Opportunity: http://www.hour25online.com/pix/opportunit...april05_02a.jpg

Lunokhod 1 also imaged the Luna 17 lander on which it landed. Although just a grainy TV still, its pretty cool.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Lk102.jpg

Am I right in thinking that because of his time in lunar orbit during Apollo 10, Gene Cernan has spent the most time at (in orbit and on the surface) the Moon than any other Apollo astronaut?

Thanks for the post!

Mercury will be pretty much mapped at low resolution prior to the first MESSENGER flyby.

Congratulations, that is a beautiful piece of work. Is the hemisphere of Triton lit by Neptuneshine previously unseen territory, or was it seen earlier in the encounter when in sulight?

Thanks Phil, signing those labels will be greatly appreciated!

I remember once reading that surface temperatures are far higher inside lunar craters than surrounding plains. I wonder if this holds true for Martian craters?

There is a chance we may find more than just moons in transit. Luc Arnold has theorised that artificial objects could also be detected in lightcurves during transit if they are of sufficient size:

http://www.obs-hp.fr/~arnold/publi_to_down...7n1_534-539.pdf

Great pic on MSL website. Good to see the thing starting to come together!

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/galler...w_Crop_2_br.jpg

I wonder where those wheels will take it?

Thanks Phil!

Those images are great, especially image C with the terminator running through Mare Orientale.

Stunning!

Here's a link to JPL's Solar System Simulator that shows the location of the Moon as seen by Voyager 1 on the day it took the 'Pale Blue Dot' image.

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...=1&showsc=1

It brings home just how unresolvable the Moon would appear on the image!

Am I right in thinking that the EVA boots worn by Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17) are the only pair to have been brought back to Earth?

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/Schmittlunarbootright1.jpg

Were the other eleven pairs, including that historic boot worn by Armstrong, simply left on the lunar surface due to LM Ascent Stage weight issues?

One of the symbols of human lunar exploration has always been the bootprint so maybe more of these historic items should have been brought home.

Thanks for the pics. It's always interesting when spacecraft make observations of objects you wouldn't expect them to. Another example was an image one of the Surveyor spacecraft took of Mercury from the surface of the Moon.

Thanks Phil, I was rather dubious that it was a fresh crater but thought I'd check. Lets hope LRO can spot the Apollo 15 LM impact site.

Could the disturbance marked 'B' on the Clementine image accompanying this article be the impact site of the Apollo 15 LM?

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missi...tos_010427.html

The impact site for the Apollo 15 LM is known to be at 26.36 N 0.25 E, so it fits with the image pretty well.

If this is the impact site I think all the dark patch shows is ejecta with the actual crater being too small to resolve. The larger crater amidst the dark area cannot be the LM impact crater as it appears in Apollo 15 images.

A long exposure image taken at night showing the layered bedrock lit by starlight and Phobos/Deimos-light. The image would capture the bedrock and show the night sky crossed by the streaks of one or more of Opportunity's now sadly departed orbital ancestors such as MGS and the Viking orbiters.

Just for sentiments sake.

The summits of the central peaks of Herschel crater on Mimas and the Odysseus basin on Tethys would provide similarly breathtaking vistas. I think the crater walls will be far below the horizon in each case though.