Saturday July 5, 2025

Sinus Iridum's Golden Handle (evening)

On Saturday night, July 5, the terminator on the waxing gibbous moon will fall just west of Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. The circular 155 mile (249 km) diameter feature is a large impact crater that was flooded by the same basalts that filled the much larger Mare Imbrium to its east - forming a rounded handle- shape on the western edge of that mare. The "Golden Handle" effect is produced by way the slanted sunlight brightly illuminates the eastern side of the prominent Montes Jura mountain range surrounding the bay on the north and west, and by a pair of protruding promontories named Heraclides and Laplace to the south and north, respectively. Sinus Iridum is almost craterless, but
hosts a set of northeast-oriented dorsae or "wrinkle ridges" that are revealed at this phase.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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* Origin: CJ's Place, Orange City FL > cjsplace.thruhere.net (21:2/156)