LUNAR ORBITER 2 PHOTO OF THE CENTURY

LUNAR ORBITER 2 PHOTO OF THE CENTURY

COPERNICUS

9.7N BY 20.0W

LUNAR TRANSIENT PHENOMENA HISTORY

DAVID O. DARLING

"But among all the Moon's craters perhaps the most impressive is Copernicus, on the Ocean Procellarum. It has been nicknamed "the Monarch of the Moon', and with good reason. Copernicus has massive walls rising in places to 17,000 feet above the inner amphitheatre. The distance right across the crater, from crest to crest, is 56 miles, but the true 'floor' is only 40 miles across, since the rest is blocked with rubble and debris produced by huge landslides from the ramparts. The central heights are made up of three distinct, multi-peaked masses, while lower hills and mounds litter the floor. There is nothing smooth about the interior of Copernicus. The walls are terraced - a common feature of lunar craters, but particularly well marked here.

In 1966 the space-probe Orbiter 2 photographed Copernicus from a mere 28 miles above the Moon's surface. The crater, approximately 150 miles away, was shown obliquely, and the results was termed 'the Picture of the Century'; it was the most magnificent lunar view obtained up to that time, though of course we have since had far more detailed images from later space-craft, notably Clementine and Prospector. The most delicate details are not visible from Earth, even with our best telescopes, but a modest instrument will show that Copernicus is a sight never to be forgotten. Moreover, it is the focal point of a system of bright rays second in importance only to that of Tycho, though they are of rather different type." Patrick Moore On The Moon.

I remember when this picture was released in the local newspapers. It was proclaimed the picture of the century, showing an incredible amount of detail of the crater Copernicus. Displaying this formation like it was never seen before gazing across the lunar plains and seeing a oblique view of one of the best known features on the Moon. This image was not repeated until man went to the Moon during the Apollo program.

The graph below shows the number of events reported by the age of the Moon. The first big spike takes place when the sunrise terminator crosses over the crater Copernicus. The next takes place during the crossing of the sunset terminator. This would indicate that you would have a greater chance to see phenomena with this crater at sunrise and sunset.

This graph shows the type of L.T.P. events by classification. The most common events are brightening with the second highest being reddish events. Both of these kinds of L.T.P. events are common terminator events.

It is unclear as to why the month of March and October and November should be show such strong activity when many of the months showing nothing at all.

The drawing below was done from a b&w video allowing me to capture a great deal of details, that I could not if doing it at the telescope eyepiece.

Conclusion: I have not witnessed any unusual activity in this crater in my thirty years of observing the Moon for phenomena. I have not concentrated my efforts on this crater the way I have with Aristarchus and Tycho so that may be a factor. When looking at this crater L.T.P. events and see how they compare to other lunar features it has a colorful history of activity. This may only mean that when it does begin to become active again the wait will be worth it.