Drawing of the Serptentine Ridge


North is up; the Serpentine Ridge is the "y" shaped ridge running vertically. To it's right (eastwards), the flooded, partial crater is le Monnier, where Luna 21 landed.

The Ridge is no. 33 on Chuck Wood's Lunar 100, and there are nice photos of it in his Modern Moon, p.74-75. Like all my drawings, I find something I think is pretty, and try to draw it--when I'm finished, I try to figure out what it is, look at photos, look at the moon, look at my drawing, and see every detail that I can. What I'm really proud of with this drawing is the Dorsa Aldrovandi, a system of mare ridges, that extend south of le Monnier--when Paul looked at the drawing, then the moon, he didn't think those ridges were there, but then he looked at the drawing and the moon some more, and then saw the ridges on the moon! The drawing not only helped me see a detail I'd otherwise miss, but helped someone else see it, too. (Artistic merit seems so secondary a consideration after that!)

September 19, 2004, 9:15-9:50pm PDT, Berkeley, Calif.
20 mm eyepiece, 80mm/3.1" refractor f/11
Heather Hernandez

Additional reference: Rükl atlas no.24.


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