A Great View of Copernicus

A Great View of Copernicus

Some evenings when we take our first look into the eyepiece the view of the Moon is startling in its starkness and beauty. This image captures that feeling of awe that the Moon invokes more than any other celestial object. Copernicus is the grandest crater on the Moon and seeing it near the inky terminator is first thrilling, and then as we regain our composure we look at the details. This low Sun image beautifully shows the broad glacies around Copernicus – a glacies is the elevated outer rim of the crater that makes it look like Copernicus is sitting on a circular platform. Actually the formation of Copernicus made the platform by uplift and fallback of debris. Other radial lines of debris are depicted as low hills that are smaller away from the rim. The larger hills to the left (west) are pre-existing ejecta from the formation of the Imbrium basin. Also note that to the west of Copernicus there is a small dome with three overlapping craters; they are probably secondary craters from Copernicus, but is there also a pit in the dome center? I have seem this dome before but it does not show up on the GLRDome Map.