December 1, 2015

Zebra Crater

Originally published December 12, 2004

Image Credit: Mike Wirth

Zebra Crater The Zebra and the Shoeprint were nicely on the terminator when Mike Wirth took this single image in poor seeing. Look at Schickard under high sun and you can clearly see what is just barely visible under this low illumination: a light stripe crosses the middle of the crater, and its ends are dark. Crater counts on the stripe suggest it is 3.84 b.y. old, the same age as the Orientale impact, and you can see secondary crater lineations from the basin-forming event at the right edge of the floor. The dark material is mare lava which erupted more recently. But near full Moon look at the little crater near the center of the floor and you will see that there must also be mare lavas under the Orientale bright stripe because the little crater has a dark halo. Just to the south (right) of Schickard is the half-crater Nasmyth which has been overlapped by Phocylides (too bad they didn't name this crater Carpenter). Nasmyth (77 km) is the heel print, and Phocylides (114 km) the soleprint; obviously giants must have walked the Moon in the distant past! Mike's image shows that the heel is shallower than the sole, but it is surprising that Phocylides rim is so low where it cuts the older Nasymth. — Chuck Wood Technical Details: April 13, 2003. 18" Starmaster dob + Nikon Coolpix 4500 and a14mm Televue Radian eyepiece. A single frame processed with Images Plus software. Related Links: Lunar Orbiter IV View Stratigraphy of Schickard Crater Rukl Atlas of the Moon, Sheet 62 & 70 Yesterday's LPOD: A New (Old) Lunar Atlas Tomorrow's LPOD: Lunar 100 Completed!

Author & Editor: Charles A. Wood

 

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