The Apennine Front on the southeast margin of the Mare Imbrium impact basin on a rare night of exceptional seeing from Phillip Island, Victoria (04-04-2021). Mare Imbrium formed by the impact of an asteroid size body moving at hyper-velocity. The Apeninnes are one of several ranges that were thown up by the impact and are arrayed around the edges of the impact basin. The excavated debri (the Imbrium impact ejecta) that landed over the Apennine range crest as it was being uplifted in the initial seconds and minutes of the impact is estimated to have been around a kilometre thick.

Features of note are Archimedes crater (top left), Autolycus crater (top right), Palus Putredinis (Marsh of Decay; top-centre), Promontorium Fresnel (upper-right), Rima Hadley and the Apollo 15 landing site (upper-right of centre), Rimae Fresnel (top-right quadrant), the Apennine Front with high points at Mons Huygens, Mons Bradley and Mons Hadley, Conon and Aratus craters centre-south of the Apennine front, Rima Conon entering Sinus Fidei (Bay of Trust; left of centre bottom), Lacus Felicitatis (Lake of Happiness), Lacus Odii (Lake of Hatred), the western tip of mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity; lower right edge), the buried Spurr crater (just SE of Archimedes), and the landing site of Luna 2 (the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon; SW of Autolycus).

The Apennine mountains form a 15,000 foot (4,600 m) escarpment that rises higher above the Hadley plain than the Himalayan front above the plains of India and Nepal.

Northwest-southeast trending faults traverse the low terrain on either side of Palus Putredinis.

On the Apollo 15 mission, Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin landed on the Apennine Front near Rima Hadley and spent three days performing fieldwork and collecting samples. The flight trajectory of the Lunar Module Falcon took them from approximately southeast to northwest as they descended over the back of the Apennines then dropped down onto the floor of the range front near Rima Hadley and Mons Hadley.

Acquisition: Skywatcher 8 inch f5 Newtonian, ASI1600mm Pro, 5x Televue.

Processing: (Autostakert, Registrax, Lightroom, Topaz DeNoise).