Tag Archives: Craters

South of Heraclitus

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This entry is part 33 of 34 in the series Lunarcy

Early in every lunation you can see this region on the moon and though I have covered it before, I discovered some remarkable new things on this particular visit. First a little orientation. Notice the Mickey Mouse configuration in the upper left. The left ear is the crater Licetus (77km diameter) and the right is Cuvier (also 77km). Between them is the unusual north-south elongated feature, Heraclitus with an odd central ridge. This is the result of a merger of two or three craters. The large flat floored crater near the center of this image is, Manzinus (100km). Then the large crater on the right edge of this image with the central peak is Vlacq (92km). This should serve to give the outlines. When processing this image, a montage of two images, I thought I saw an artifact of the knitting process about midway up the terminator. It’s a little dotted horizontal line and above the left end the barest … Continue reading →

North by Northwest

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This entry is part 32 of 34 in the series Lunarcy

A day or two short of the full moon, depending on the libration, on the northwest terminator of the moon you will find a remarkable crater that catches the eye. This is Pythagoras (133km dia.) with beautifully terraced walls and a central peak that casts great shadows across the western side of the crater and the west wall. The extreme near limb presentation of this magnificent crater gives us the opportunity to see just how shallow craters are. When on the terminator near the center of the moon, they look like deep wells but in this case the depth is only 4.8 km or 3.75% of the diameter! Shallow indeed! You can see this for yourself by making a 100mm diameter crater that is only 4mm deep. The large non-circular crater in front of Pythagoras is Babbage (148km) and to it’s left is Oenophiles (70km) and further on is the smaller Markov (43km). To the lower right of Pythagoras is … Continue reading →

North of Brahe

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This entry is part 35 of 34 in the series Lunarcy

Center bottom we have the spectacular crater Tycho (diameter 88km) the center of the largest ray system on the Moon that completely wraps around the globe. This is two days after the terminator passed over this crater and already the sun is high enough to show the rays without washing out some of the topographic details. For orientation purposes, the large dark crater at the top is Pitatus. Just below that are two similar sized craters Gauricus (82km) on the right and Wurzelbauer (90km) and off to the right is a much smaller well defined crater with a fairly dark patchy floor, Hell (34km). To the left of Pitatus and you’ll see one of the better double walled craters on the Moon, Hesiodus A (15km) looking like a little bulls-eye target with the small central peak. The parent crater Hesiodus (44km) is above it with a small 5km central crater. Going back to Tycho we can see one of the … Continue reading →

On the South Shore

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This entry is part 31 of 34 in the series Lunarcy

The whole rim of Mare Nectaris is populated with wonderful features. Here we have the south side with the big scarp Rupes Altai below and left of center stretching from the beautiful crater Piccolomini (90km dia) at bottom going all they way up past the large Catarina (104km) some 495km. You can just barely see another pressure ridge, concentric to Mare Nectaris, running from Catharina down south of the large “U” shaped crater above center, Fracastorius (128km). Unfortunately the nice east-west rima that bisects this crater is just beyond the resolution of this image. But there are many secondary craters on its floor and a splattering of them in the upper left covering Beaumont (54km) a little brother to Fracastorius. These secondaries are likely the ejecta from the Theophilus impact to the north which must have been a fantastic sight!

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The Ends

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This entry is part 30 of 34 in the series Lunarcy

Normally a more foreshortened feature, at this libration we get a good look into Endymion, the large 125km diameter crater just right of center. As lunar night approaches we see the wonderful shadows crawling across its floor. The two large craters below and to the left (west) are Atlas (90km) and the smaller, younger Hercules (71km) with the satellite crater Hercules G (13km) on its floor. Many observers think these two are much alike but actually they are remarkably different with a smooth flat floor in Hercules and rimae, and roughness on the floor of Atlas. Even the eject is very different in the two with Atlas having a thick ejecta blanket that even covers over a much older crate to the north. Above these two is the teardrop shaped crater Keldysh (34km). Below and to the right of Atlas is a ghost crater seen best at this sun angle, Chevallier (54km), with small satellite crater Chevallier B (13km) contained … Continue reading →

Little Brother

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This entry is part 29 of 34 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 27 of 34 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 26 of 34 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 25 of 34 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 24 of 34 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 23 of 34 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 22 of 34 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 →