Last night I spent an hour or so at the telescope viewing the moon's terminator area, marveling at the shadows cast and the deep, dark craters. I duly focused my 10mm eye piece through my 2 x Barlow lens. The view was fantastic, good seeing and transparency meant little 'boiling' at the eye piece. I duly sketched the objective and returned in doors to review my work against the Phillip's Moon Map. Now this is where it all went wrong.
I have become confused over the orientation of the image that I sketched through the eye piece to the Moon Map's orientation. I know that the Moon Map is orientated with east oriented to earths equivalent west position. South is still south and north is still north. However, I also know that the image that you see through the eye piece has been reversed through the process of reflection through the secondary mirror.
My sketches are not that bad, no masterpiece I grant you but it's not that difficult to draw some outlines recording the positions of features and then reference this drawing against a map showing the same features. However, I still can't find them. The moon will have shifter its terminator tonight and hence the probability of catching it again will have reduced.
Ho hum such is the lot of amateur astronomers.
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