Tycho Central Peak Spectacular!

Until today, all of the images I have seen from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera have been looking straight down from orbit. This has yielded the highest resolutions - sometimes better than .5 meters per pixel.

Last month, LROC slewed its Narrow Angle Camera to the side and took a spectacular oblique image of the central peak in Tycho crater.

Browse & zoom the full-resolution image here.

Read about the image here.

Image resolution is 1.5m per pixel. The round boulder at the top of the mountain is 120m across. Note the cracks from the cooled impact melt.

Enjoy!

APOD has posted a usable copy of the picture, so here it is:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d06ad8a0c38f.jpg[/atsimg]

Nice shot..Great shadows.
I think we need to name that boulder.

reply to post by spacedoubt


Good idea! My first thought, since it is big & round was "Charlie Brown", but since it's oblong, maybe "Stewie" would be better. Since it looks kind of like a rugby ball, how 'bout "Gilbert"?

reply to post by Saint Exupery



I like Stewie...FWIW!

It's such a great shot...nice shadows, a real sense of dimension..

Well, the LROC team has done it again!

The photo in the OP was looking from east-to-west. Last month the LROC team released another oblique view of Tycho, this time looking from the other direction:

Browse & zoom the full-resolution image here.

Read about the image here.

This image is from further away, so the resolution is lower, but you can see more of the crater wall.

Enjoy!