Seeing Part of Mercury for the First Time
A Side of Mercury Not Seen By Mariner 10, arXiv.org e-Print archive
“More than 60,000 images of Mercury were taken at ~29 deg elevation during two sunrises, at 820 nm, and through a 1.35 m diameter off-axis aperture on the SOAR telescope. The sharpest resolve 0.2″ (140 km) and cover 190-300 deg longitude — a swath unseen by the Mariner 10 spacecraft — at complementary phase angles to previous ground-based optical imagery. Our view is comparable to that of the Moon through weak binoculars. Evident are the large crater Mozart shadowed on the terminator, fresh rayed craters, and other albedo features keyed to topography and radar reflectivity, including the putative huge “Basin S” on the limb.”