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Tag Archives: Craters

Little Brother

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This entry is part 28 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

Outshone by his big brother Copernicus, seen here in the lower left, the sizeable crater, Eratosthenes (diameter 60km) is nevertheless a very interesting crater with nicely terraced walls, a good central peak cluster and a tight herringbone ejecta blanket surrounding the crater. Seen here Eratosthenes forms a southern anchor to the Montes Apenninus. Between Eratosthenes and Copernicus is an eye catching string of secondary craters from the Copernicus impact event. It takes at least a 3″ telescope to make them out clearly and the right lighting. At the south end of this string is a large ghost crater, Stadius (70km) which stands between Sinus Aestuum to the east (southeast of Eratosthenes) and Mare Insularum below Copernicus to the southwest. On the opposite side of Eratosthenes from Stadius is another ghost crater sitting out in Mare Imbrium. This is Wallace (27km) with a more complete rim on the west side than the east. Notice the twin satellite craters below it Eratosthenes … Continue reading →

No safe distancing!

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This entry is part 26 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

This is a crowded highland region on the moon east of Tycho and Clavius. The large crater on the terminator with the great dramatic shadows on is floor is Maginus (168km diameter) with its tiny offset central peaks. Below center is a crater with a pronounced central peak, Lilus (63km) and to the lower right of it is Jacobi (70km) with a bunch of secondary craters on its floor. In the upper right corner of this image is half of the large crater Maurolycus (117km). Notice the crater to the left, Faraday (71km). On the lower left crater wall is a particularly polygonal crater Faraday C (30km) with a curious floor infilled with ejecta from another nearby impact. The concentric depression on the left (west) side of this crater consists of at least 3 merged craters again overlain by ejecta looking like thumbprints in the lunar surface. Moving south from Maurolycus is the crater Barocius (85km) with a curious upper … Continue reading →

Long Crack

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This entry is part 25 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

The moon is almost full and it seems like there is little to see. But on the southwest terminator is a grouping of craters that lead us to one of the longest cracks on the Moon. Near the top of this image are two overlapping craters. The one on top is Sirsalis (43km diameter). You will notice a rima running north-south just to the right of it. This is, appropriately enough, Rimae Sirsalis one main rima with several smaller, shorter, thinner ones on the side. The main rima is 309km long, its southern end in shadow here and the northern end of the top of this image. Just to the right of the nameplate on this image is the faintest traces of the upper edge of a crater wall. This is the crater Cruger (48km) with the satellite crater Cruger A (27km) the sharp crater next to the rima. Further on in the same direction is a shallow flat bottomed … Continue reading →

East of Nectar

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This entry is part 24 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

Here we have the east coast of Mare Nectaris. There are some real treats here. The wonderful keyhole shaped crater above center is Gutenberg (77km dia) with smaller Gutenberg C (45km) forming the keyhole shape to the south. To the north are the Rimae Gutenberg looking like three roughly parallel scratch marks heading off to the northwest. Michael Collins got great images of these rimae from the Apollo 11 command module under the file name AS11-42-6313. Then east of Gutenberg is the oddly shaped crater Goclenius (56km) with Rima Goclenius stretching from its north wall some 247 km north to Gutenberg E (28km) the broken crater that intrudes on the northeast wall of Gutenberg. Slightly north and to the west on the terminator, is the shadow filled crater Capella (51km). Very dramatic mountains and formations here can be seen as the sun rises further. To the southwest of Gutenberg is a small but interesting crater Guadibert (34km) just a ring … Continue reading →

The Blanchinus “X”

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This entry is part 23 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

Our best observing weather is when the days are hot, the evenings warm and still. The colongitude was just right so this was a good night toget a look at the famous “X” on the moon. Can you see it on the terminator? It only lasts for and hour or so. Here’s how you get there. The area below center of this image is dominated by the two circular pools of darkness that are Aliacensis (82km diameter), lower, and Werner (71km) above. A line between the centers of these two craters lead to the “X” formed by the walls of Blanchinus, La Caille, Purbach and several smaller features. Above Aliacensus and Werner is a nice flat floored crater, Apianus (65km) and further above that is a smaller crater Playfair (49km). Near the top of the image is a pair of craters Azophi (49km) and above it is the irregular Abenezra (43km) with Geber (46km) partially cut off by the edge … Continue reading →

A Humid Place on the Moon

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This entry is part 22 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

The monster crater here is Gassendi (114km diameter), a landmark for this colongitude on the north shore of Mare Humorum, the “Sea of Moisture”. Gassendi was flooded during the same even that created the mare so we only see the tops of what once were magnificent central peaks. The faulted floor is always a enjoyable but I particularly like the detail in the walls of the crater as they catch these early rays of the rising sun. Note the two notches in Gassendi’s wall at about the 11 o’clock position. On LROC Quick Map they appear to be to impacts through the mountains giving the appearance at this lighting of being parallel rimae. The nice central peaks and rimae on the floor are provide a rich field for examination. There are 3 main rimae that diverge from a point to the east of the central peaks. Between two of them is a small crater, Gassendi N (3km). The rima on … Continue reading →

The “X”

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This entry is part 21 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

Our best observing weather in southern AZ is when the days are hot, the evenings warm and still. The colongitude was just right so this was a good night to get a look at the famous “X” on the moon. Can you see it on the terminator? It only lasts for and hour or so. Here’s how you get there. The area below center of this image is dominated by the two circular pools of darkness that are Aliacensis (82km diameter), lower, and Werner (71km) above. A line between the centers of these two craters lead to the “X” formed by the walls of Blanchinus, La Caille, Purbach and several smaller features. Above Aliacensis and Werner is a nice flat floored crater, Apianus (65km) and further above that is a smaller crater Playfair (49km). Near the top of the image is a pair of craters Azophi (49km) and above it is the irregular Abenezra (43km) with Geber (46km) partially cut … Continue reading →

Lunar Central

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This entry is part 19 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

Imagine working on a spacecraft, putting your whole effort into building, launching and guiding of it to its destination (Destination Moon for you old timers) only to lose the telemetry 2 1/2 minutes before the projected touchdown? I’ve been in a room where that kind of thing happened (on Mars) and everyone looks like a wet dog. It’s very depressing. The lunar mission I’m speaking of here is Surveyor 4 which crashed into Sinus Medii very near the Huyginus (10km dia.) and the beautiful squat “V” shaped Rima Huyginus seen in the upper right and Triesnecker (27km) with its complex of rimae in the center. The mean center of the visible disk of the Moon is seen at the “+” symbol. Above it are two similar sized craters, Bruce (7km) on the left and Blagg (5km) on the right. To the left of these are two numbers “4” and “6”. The number 4 indicates the supposed crash site of Surveyor … Continue reading →

Sunset drama.

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This entry is part 10 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

I don’t usually get to see sunset terminators because of the mountains and trees to my east so this night was a treat because the moon was at such a high declination that it was overhead. A number of my favorites were in one field of view here. The large crater at the top is Aristoteles (90 km dia.) with Mitchell (31 km) taking a bite out of its southeast (lower right) wall. Due south of this pair is Eudoxus (70 km) and east of that, deep in shadow, is Burg (41 km) in the center of the hexagonal Lacus Mortis. All three of these large craters are recent by lunar standards. The latter two are Copernican age of 1.1 billion years or less while Aristoteles is a older, Eratosthean age between 1.1-3.2 billion years. But if you want something really old, Lacus Mortis, is Pre-Imbrian age may be as much as 4.5 billion years old, that’s 18 rotations of … Continue reading →

Brahe’s crater

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This entry is part 9 of 28 in the series Lunarcy

The area around Tycho is so busy that you have to study it in pieces. Here we start with Tycho (88km dia.) on left of center fand look to the east (right). One of the first things we run into is below and east of Tycho and the largest named crater in this image, Maginus (168km) an oft overlooked crater lying between the spectacular Tycho and magnificent Clavius (just off the southern edge of this image). Between Tycho and Maginus is the crater Street ( 60km). Then below and to the right of Maginus is a sideways Mickey Mouse formed by three craters. The larger crater in this trio is Deluc (49km). From Tycho going east we see Pictet (65km) almost adjacent and further is Saussure (56km) with and interesting flat bottom. Above this last crater is another large one, Orontius (126km) with a triplet of craters just east of it in order, Huggins (66km), Nasireddin (54km) and above it … Continue reading →

Crater Virus infects Science Week Drawings

Recently here in Ireland we had the phenomena that is Science Week. A nationwide effort by hundreds of people to open the many facets of science to children and adults all over the country.  My offerings were workshops about the Apollo 11 moon landing called Let’s Go To The Moon – Apollo 11, Deadly Moons and Marvellous Mars. All of which I have written about in the past hit the links to check them out. This year a unique crater virus came to visit and spread itself around many drawings. Guidance Increasingly I have being introducing drawing techniques in my workshops.  Sometimes the effect has a slow uptake and other times it has an immediate viral effect. One such action is a tip on crater drawing , kids just love it. Here below we see some drawings that benefited from simple guidence. Examples of the crater virus that invaded hundreds of drawings and created smiles all over the room.   … Continue reading →


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