We report a feature described and imaged by KC Pau during an onbserving session carried out on December 30, 2003 at 12:36 UT. The suspected rille appears as a diagonal line located to the south of the crater Manilius. The images taken by Pau (figure1) and by Francisco J. Bellido (figure2) and the visual observation carried out by Lena (figure3) showed the presence of a real cross sectional feature not reported in the Atlas of the Moon by A. Rukl and on the Lunar quadrant maps.

Fig.1 Pau on December 30 2003 at 12:36 UT

Fig 2 Francisco José Bellido, Córdoba, Spain26 April 2004 - 20:40 UT
Schmidt-Cassegrain 235 mm +  Barlow 2X + Philips ToUcam Pro

Fig 3: Raffaello Lena. observation carried out on 26 April 2004 - 20:55 UT. Refractor 10 cm f/15 180 x .

Fig 4:Piergiovanni Salimbeni: 26 April 2004: 20.20 UT/20.40 UT. Sc 203mm F/10

We are surprised the rille was not better known. The collection of new Hires images may contribute to study this structure and to stimulate the interest of other lunar observers.

We detected to the West of Manilius the presence of a dome; this possible dome, observed by Pau and Lena, is unreported in ALPO dome catalogue. Using our images,we were able to measure the diameter and position of the newly reported dome.These were obtained by enlarging the images, counting the number of pixels in the object of interest, and then converting this into kilometers per pixel (table 1).

TABLE 1

The lunar dome we have described here (+0.141+0.183) is located just to the west of the crater Manilius. This possible dome is another clear example of the elusive nature of these volcanic structures on the Moon and the need for more work in this challenging area.

Fig 5: comparison with a map of Atlas of the Moon (Rukl)

Rome May, 3, 2004

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