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Geological Sub-section

By Raffaello Braga

The Geological Sub-section of the BAA Lunar Section is involved in the study of the volcanic features of the Moon, notably domes and Dark Halo Craters (DHC). This study is carried out by observing, describing, photographing and measuring these features which, with few exceptions, are not very apparent and thus often overlooked by amateurs. However they are extremely important for the understanding of the geologic history of the Moon and of the extention of the lunar volcanism, and they are also one of the very few fields in which an amateur astronomer can do a useful job, for example by refining the size and height of lunar domes, which are directly related to the characteristics of lunar magmas and their modes of eruption.

To timely plan observations and to promptly exchange them in this field is essential, this is the reason why I have founded a discussion group which will help in organizing the work at the telescope. By joining this group observers can:

Share their observations, drawings, images, etc.
Receive the monthly observing schedule for the domes in the BAA LS observing program (which is also published in the LSC)
Receive the list of suspected domes to be confirmed
Receive any alerts about urgently needed observations
Discuss any related topic(s)

The group is configured in order to allow members to share small image files (up to 100 Kb, JPEG format). The Yahoo! server works with an updated antivirus that should prevent the diffusion of dangerous files. Moreover the membership is restricted, this should allow me to keep spammers out of the door.

The group address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunarvolcanism

and it is shared with the participants to the lunar volcanism program of the UAI Lunar Section, of which I have been recently appointed director.

Observations of domes in particular will be collected on the Digital Lunar Dome Archive (also shared with UAI), a bilingual (English/ Italian) Internet web site intended to collect images, drawings and reports. It also includes useful articles and tools for the serious lunar observer.

The URL is: http://luna.uai.it/Duomi/index.htm

I strongly invite all BAA lunar observers to participate in the subsection work, to join the discussion group and to visit the above web site. Comments and suggestions to improve it are very much welcomed.

Raffaello Braga
BAA Lunar Section Geological Sub-section Coordinator Email: geology@baalunarsection.org.uk