On earth (or Melbourne at least) we continue with Stage 4 lock down, so once again we escape to the lunar surface where we are free to roam. This time we flew over Promontorium Laplace on the southern shores of Mare Imbrium, approaching from the north and heading south.

On the bottom edge of the image is Montes Recti that lies within the Mare and reaches 1.8 km above the floor of the basin. Heading up and left Promontorium Laplace (named for the French polymath, mathematician and astronomer) is a mountainous cape that lies on the end of Montes Jura and reaches a height of 2600m. Here it can be seen throwing a stark triangular shadow southward onto the floor of Sinus Iridum, the bay that lies within the cusp of Montes Jura.

The Jura mountains are the rim of a huge impact crater that formed more than 3.2 billion years ago on the rim of an even older and larger depression of Mare Imbrium.

Inland from the cape (west/right) lies the large degraded crater Maupertuis (French mathematician). The large crater further west (on the right hand edge of the image) is La Condamine crater (another French mathematician). The smaller but sharp-edged crater in the top-right quadrant is Bouguer (you guessed it - another Frenchman, Pierre Bouguer was a French hydrographer, mathematician, geophysicist, geodeist, astronomer and 'father of naval architecture'), a well known individual to those of us who are geologists and geophysicists and who use gravity surveys in mineral exploration. The large crater in the top-left quadrant near the shoreline of Sinus Iridum is Bianchini crater - finally the French have conceded the nomenclature in this field of view to an Italian astronomer, Francesco Bianchini.

The sweep of Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) is sublime, and a delight to observe by both direct visual observation in binoculars and in almost any processed astronomical image, with Promontorium Laplace being mirrowed by Promontorium Heraclides just off the top-left beyond this field of view, at the opposite end of the Bay of Rainbows.

Imaging Scope: Skywatcher 8 inch f5 Newtonian.

ZWO ASI1600mm (mono) Pro astronomy camera with CMOS sensor operating at -20 Celcius.

System Focal length ~7000mm.

Tracking Mount: NEQPro6 with Synscan.

Acessories: Televue 5x Powermate.

Data Capture: Sharpcap 3.5.122

Capture Duration: 2 minutes

Processing Software: Autostakkert 3.0.14, Registrax 6.

Post Processing: Lightroom, Topaz Denoise AI.

Noise Reduction Signal Boost Stack: 300 frames of 1737 frames.

Location: Backyard, Lysterfield, Melbourne.

Time: 21:10