哥白尼火山口的日出

2019 May 30

哥白尼火山口的日出
图片版权所有:Sage Gray

说明：哥白尼陨石坑位于月球大洋洲原岩的一个著名撞击点，是这张望远镜拍摄的光影影像的中心。4月14日凌晨3点30分，“月球终结者”(即昼夜分界线)拍摄了一组叠在一起的锐化视频画面，画面穿过直径93公里的陨石坑中央。阳光刚刚开始照射到它高大的西墙上，但还没有照射到附近地势较低的地方，这使得陨石坑的轮廓短暂地延伸到了月球的背面。在那个时刻，站在哥白尼火山口，你可以看到日出，这是哥白尼每29.5天发生一次的事件。当然，这相当于一个农历月或一个月圆，即从地球上看到的连续满月之间的时间。

Sunrise at Copernicus Crater
Image Credit & Copyright: Sage Gray

Explanation: A prominent impact site anchored in the lunar Oceanus Procellarum, Copernicus crater is at the center of this telescopic portrait in light and shadow. Caught in stacked and sharpened video frames recorded on April 14 at 3:30am UTC, the lunar terminator, or boundary between night and day, cuts across the middle of the 93 kilometer diameter crater. Sunlight is just beginning to strike its tall western walls but doesn’t yet shine on lower terrain nearby, briefly extending the crater’s outline into the lunar nightside. At that moment standing at Copernicus crater you could watch the sunrise, an event that happens at Copernicus every 29.5 days. Of course that corresponds to a lunar month or a lunation, the time between consecutive Full Moons, as seen from planet Earth.