sixteen-seventeen
day moon
The gibbous Moon will be visible for most of night, and will transit during the couple of hours after midnight. An observation might reasonably span midnight, starting on one day and finishing on the next (hence the two-day heading for this page). Apart from the features described here, a separate Tour of Bright Objects covers features which become prominent across the whole lunar disc around the time of the full moon.

Mare Crisium Tonight the Mare Crisium will be visible in its entirety for the last time before the terminator sweeps westwards across it. Running northwards from Crisium in a line roughly as long, three craters show strongly in the lunar twilight: smooth class 5 Cleomedes, class 1 Geminus and the old walled plain Messala. Further towards the northern lunar pole, as far again as Messala from Crisium, is the prominent dark oval of class 5 Endymion.

Petavius To the south of Crisium by slightly more than its length is class 1 Langrenus. It shows strong relief in this light, very different to its bright ring during the full moon. South of Langrenus by roughly its diameter is the slightly larger class 5 Vendelinus. In contrast to the sharp, youthful outline of its neighbour to the north, its degraded contours reveal its considerable age. To its south, at a similar distance again, lies class 5 Petavius, a ring mountain with its large multiple central peak showing well.