image byOscar Canales Moreno, Pinsoro, Spain
Can you name more than one crater in this view?
For many observers this piece of real estate north of Crisium Mare Crisium is vaguely familiar, but probably few if any craters other than Cleomedes can be identified without a map. Burckhardt is the one with the big ears, and north of that is the young crater Geminus. There are four other named craters visible that are even less noticed. Just east (right) of Geminus is Bernoulli, a smaller, more subdued version of Geminus. And breaking the northwest rim of Cleomedes is Tralles, another yet smaller and milder version of Geminus. Immediately northwest is a pair of slightly overlapping craters, the northern having the name of Debes. Such overlapping craters often form by simultaneous impact, and many are secondary craters. But Debes and its overlapper are each about 30 km in diameter, so big that they must be basin secondaries (from Crisium?), if they are secondaries. The sharp-rimmed but relatively shallow crater Delmotte is the last named crater visible, to the east of Cleomedes. Debes and Delmotte were early 20th century selenographers who were nearly invisible to the English speaking world. There is one other named feature here - it is the nearly horizontal mountain at the bottom of the image. This is the rim of the Crisium impact basin, unnamed until I called it the Wasatch Mountains.
Technical Details:
Details on image
Related Links:
Rükl plates 16 & 26
Lunar Orbiter IV view of nearly the same scene.
Yesterday's LPOD: Not a Lucky Shot
Tomorrow's LPOD: Rims on the Limb
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