Asteroid 102224 Raffaellolena
Stefano Sposetti of Gnosca Observatory in Switzerland requested that the main belt asteroid, 1999 TG12, be named "Raffaello Lena", in recognition of my lunar contribution and studies. The IAU approved the request so the asteroid is now 102224 Raffaellolena

Merlin Award by British astronomical Association

In 2021 i have received the BAA Merlin Award in recognition of a notable contribution to the advancement of astronomy

MERLIN MEDAL & GIFT

Raffaello Lena and Barry Fitz-gerald

Raffaello Lena

Raffaello Lena is a distinguished Italian amateur astronomer, living in Rome, and is a regular contributor to the BAA. An active member of the Lunar Section Committee, he writes a monthly column on volcanic domes for the Lunar Section Circular as well as contributing regularly to the Section’s other publication The Moon: Occasional Papers. He has also written many original research papers for the BAA Journal. Raf’s work on lunar domes has received international acclaim from both amateurs and professionals. The well-known professional lunar scientist Chuck Wood has referred to him as the ‘dome master’, writing that ‘Raffaello Lena and his colleagues have elevated amateur lunar studies to the professional level.’ Raf was the founder of the Geological Lunar Research group and was the lead editor of its journal Selenology Today.

Raf’s book, which he was the lead author, Lunar Domes: Properties and Formation Processes (Springer- Praxis, 2013), is recognised as the standard work on the subject. His work on the cataloguing, classification and morphology of lunar domes has also appeared in professional journals, including Icarus, Planetary and Space Science, and the Proceedings of the LPSC conference. In 2018 the main belt asteroid, 1999 TG12 was named ‘Raffaellolena’ in Raf’s honour.

Like Raf, Barry Fitz-Gerald has a long and distinguished history of contributions to lunar studies and to the work of the Lunar Section, of which he too is a Committee member. Active in the Section since the 1990s, Barry has long championed the cause of lunar geological studies and shown that the amateur can make a worthwhile contribution to the field, one that is recognised by professional colleagues. He too contributes regularly to Section publications and to the BAA Journal. His research papers have also appeared in professional publications, including Icarus, Planetary and Space Science, and Lunar & Planetary Science. Whereas Raf’s interests are centred (although not exclusively) on lunar domes, Barry has deployed his geological knowledge in the investigation of a variety of lunar landforms, including a reinterpretation of how concentric craters might have formed. A recent issue of the Lunar Section Circular contains a tenacious and convincing interpretation of the tortured morphology of the strange lunar crater Gaudibert.

Barry and Raf could each merit the award of the Merlin medal, however, a joint award was made to recognise their regular collaborations on joint papers, both in our Journal and in professional periodicals, where the different emphases of their skills have combined to produce outstanding results. Their work together has served to foreground a whole new raft of opportunities open to the amateur selenographer as a result of the ready availability of professional data on-line; and this has had a significant impact on how the Lunar Section now goes about its work. Both Barry and Raf are active observers — Barry has a home observatory and Raf regularly submits images to the BAA —but they have pioneered in the Section the use of spacecraft imagery and datasets to complement the results of telescopic observation. They have mastered the use and interpretation of professional datasets in order to derive highly sophisticated geological information. This has brought a new and important dimension to amateur study of the Moon.

https://britastro.org/2021/baa-awards-2021

Monograph and book's chapters

Lunar Domes: Properties and Formation Processes (Springer Praxis Series, 2013)

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Review (LPOD April, 27 2013) C. Wood: Over the last ten years or so a small international group of professionals in various fields relentlessly imaged, measured and analysed lunar domes. They started with their own images and traditional techniques, and embraced new data and tools as they became available from orbiting spacecraft to refine their calculations and increase the types of knowledge gained. Early on simply getting an accurate determination of dome height and slope was a significant advance, and now they routinely estimate surface compositions, eruption conditions and geophysical constraints of dome formation. It is not an exaggeration to say that with the publication of the first book devoted exclusively to domes that Raf, Christian, Jim and Maria Teresa have become the world's leading experts on these small volcanoes. The first third of the book is technical, reflecting its origin in papers the team has published in professional journals, The rest is a mare by mare observer's guide to many dozens of domes, each illustrated with spacecraft and amateur images, and derived topographic profiles. The book is not for the casual observer, but both the professional lunar geologist and the advanced amateur will want it as a compact handbook of virtually everything we know of some of the Moon's most illusive features.These same four people are the leaders of the Geological Lunar Researches Group that has recently published the 31st issue of Selenology Today, a high level journal that provides opportunities for amateurs to publish new research on the Moon. Congratulations to GLR for ST and Lunar Domes.

Chuck Wood

Lunar impact studies

Since many years I work on the search of lunar impacts, with simultaneous observations from distant observing sites. Stefano Sposetti, Andrea Manna (Switzerland) and I (from Rome) detected a simultaneous lunar flash likely originated by a lunar impact. Interview about the detection that Stefano Sposetti, Andrea Manna and I imaged on August 1, 2013 at 02: 21: 55.7 UT (National Institute of Astrophysics INAF).

Interview by MEDIA INAF (National Institute of Astrophysics)

Lunar Meteoroid Impacts and How to Observe Them (Cudnik B. editor Springer)

Chapter 11, which is written by Raffaello Lena, is dedicated to those interested in determining whether an event is a spurious flash or a true impact.