September 29, 2023
Farside 50 - Almost
Originally published September 14, 2013
| .F#. |
Name................................ |
.F#. |
Name............................... |
| 1 |
Schwarzschild |
26 |
Korolev |
| 2 |
Karpinskiy |
27 |
Orientale Basin |
| 3 |
Compton |
28 |
Tsiolkovskiy |
| 4 |
D'Alembert & Slipher |
29 |
Gagarin |
| 5 |
Birkhoff |
30 |
Aitken |
| 6 |
Giordano Bruno |
31 |
Van de Graaff |
| 7 |
Fabry & Catena Sumner |
32 |
Eternity Mountains |
| 8 |
H.G. Wells |
33 |
Orientale Ash Ring |
| 9 |
Landau |
34 |
Mare Australe |
| 10 |
Joliot & Catena Dziewulski |
35 |
Jules Verne |
| 11 |
Moscoviense |
36 |
Mare Ingenii |
| 12 |
Buys-Ballot |
37 |
Oppenheimer |
| 13 |
Jackson |
38 |
Leibnitz-Finsen |
| 14 |
Mach |
39 |
Apollo |
| 15 |
Ohm |
40 |
Orientale South |
| 16 |
King |
41 |
Planck |
| 17 |
Mendeleev |
42 |
Poincare |
| 18 |
Kohlschutter |
43 |
South Pole-Aitken |
| 19 |
Hertzsprung |
44 |
Hale |
| 20 |
Orientale West |
45 |
Schrödinger & Valley |
| 21 |
Unnamed |
46 |
Antoniadi |
| 22 |
Necho |
47 |
Shackleton* |
| 23 |
Keeler-Heaviside |
48 |
Soviet Mountains |
| 24 |
Icarus |
49 |
|
| 25 |
Crookes |
50 |
The table above and the text below appeared as an LPOD five years ago. At that time there were a few suggestions of what might be added to the list to reach 50 items but perhaps there are some new recommendations because we have much more experience looking at the farside now due to the LRO QuickMap that makes it just as accessible as the nearside. So what are some of your new farside favorities? I guess I could perhaps answer this question just by looking at what Moto Shirao and I included in our Kaguya Atlas of the Moon, but I'd be interested in your opinions too.
Recently I was asked by one of the folks who work with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Lunar 100, a listing of 100 interesting observing objects on the nearside. The Lunar 100 has been used to select targets for the marvelous HDTV camera. A number of objects came to mind immediately for the farside list: Orientale Basin, Giordano Bruno brilliantly-rayed crater, impact-melt splashing King crater, Icarus with the too high central peak and others. I sat down with the Bussey and Spudis The Clementine Atlas of the Moon and Byrne's The Far Side of the Moon and spent a couple of pleasant hours selecting 48 candidates. Actually, 47, for Shackelton, the polar crater perhaps with ice on its floor, is at 89.9°, not quite on the farside. (Of course, coordinates at the poles may may be off by more than 0.1° so I am leaving it in the list for now.) I need two (or three) additional features so as to not end up with the Farside 48! Can anyone suggest some candidates that are relatively large and unusually interesting?
Chuck Wood
Two more notes from 2013: 1. More of these Farside 48 have appeared in LPOD since 2007 but I haven't updated the links. 2. Looking at the Amazon.com page I see that the book sells for almost twice what it did when it came out in 2011. I better hold on to my copy as an investment!
Yesterday's LPOD: Another Small Mystery
Tomorrow's LPOD: Not Because It is Easy
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