Any full moon lunar observing tips?

This week, I'll have a little observing time and was thinking about making a serious start at the Lunar 100 and AstroLeague Lunar program with filtered binoculars and my 70mm refractor.

I know the full moon isn't necessarily the best place to start, but it's the moon we'll get this week. Does anyone have any tips about what to observe when the moon is full?

Full moon was a couple of days ago. Should be up around 1:00 or so tonight. Still, full moon can be intersting enough. Try a good filter-I like #11 or #56. They will all cause the ray systems to stand out. I've enjoyed tracing those across the moon's surface. The Baader contrast filter does a better job, I think, but the colored filters can be useful, too.

There are several good sites found by just googling lunar 100. Below listed is one of my favorite sites since it lists the "day" of the moon cycle when L100 objects are best viewed.

http://www.eastvalleyastronomy.org/downloads/OTL100.pdf

Virtual Moon Atlas, a must have program if you observe the Moon.

http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_screens.html

It lists areas of interest near the terminator.

Thanks for the ideas. I was able to put together a nice folder for my lunar expedition! 8)

When the moon is full or nearly full, that's when I concentrate on the limb. Right now there is favorable libration for Mare Orientale on the south-western limb. Here is an observing report I posted in another forum earlier today:

Observing Report 07.03.07 at 5 AM (0100 UT)

Equipment: 80mm Nighthawk achromat, 8-24mm zoom eyepiece, 2.5x Powermate giving powers up to 150x.
No filters used.

On the south-western limb Mare Orientale is finally getting some good libration again! It's worth getting up just before sunrise to try to catch some details in this ellusive lunar target. Although more aperture is always better, you really don't need a large scope for viewing good detail along the lunar limb. In fact, I got some really good detail out of my 80mm Nighthawk II this morning. I used a 8-24 zoom eyepiece. I soon realized though, that the air was steady enough to also use a 2.5x Powermate, giving me magnification right up to 150x.
Now, right at the very edge of the south-western limb, I spotted the long, snake-like gray feature of Lacus Veris. From our "bird's eye" view, it looks very skinny. If you look closely at high power near the center, you will notice that Veris is actually in two "pieces," with the ends cris-crossing each other. The ends don't actually cris-cross, but appear to do so at this angle of view. You can see what Veris looks like from overhead in this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacus_Veris . Immediately to the east of Veris is Lacus Autumni, shorter but a little bit fatter in appearance. At high power it looks like a flag pole with a flag at the top. How appropriate for the Fourth of July! Just to the north of this is another smaller patch, more oval in appearance and placed at an angle. Between Autumni and Veris is the Rook mountains, but with the sunlight at this angle I could not define any mountain peaks. I could, however, count several far side peaks poking up from the limb, perhaps also from the Rook mountains. These peaks are actually visible at much lower powers if you look closely enough. I am going to try to make a sketch and get it posted later today.

David E

Here is another lunar guide.

http://www.shallowsky.com/moon/hitchhiker.html