Halley (lunar crater)

Halley
Apollo 16 image
Coordinates 8°00′S 5°42′E / 8.0°S 5.7°E / -8.0; 5.7Coordinates: 8°00′S 5°42′E / 8.0°S 5.7°E / -8.0; 5.7
Diameter 36 km
Depth 2.5 km
Colongitude 355° at sunrise
Eponym Edmond Halley
Hind (upper right centre) and Halley (upper left centre) from Apollo 16. At top right is Hipparchus C. Hind C is south of Hind. NASA photo.

Halley is a lunar impact crater that is intruding into the southern wall of the walled plain Hipparchus. Between 45 and 50 km to the southwest of Halley is the large crater Albategnius, and due east lies the slightly smaller Hind.

Its diameter is 36 km long and is 2,500 meters deep, also, the area is around 900 km².

The rim of Halley is somewhat worn, and a scar in the lunar surface passes through the western rim, forming a valley that runs to the south-southeast, near the rim of Albategnius. The interior floor of Halley is relatively flat. In the northwest is a double crater in the vicinity dividing Halley and Hipparchus, another crater is in the northeast rim and a smaller crater is in the floor of the southwest rim.

Names

The crater is named after the English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist and physicist Edmond Halley. On the 1645 map by Michael van Langren, the crater is called Gansii, for the gansa (a kind of wild swan) of Francis Godwin's The Man in the Moone.[1] On the 1647 map by Johannes Hevelius, the crater called it "Cimanus Mons" and grouped it with Hind, it was named after the Cimanus of the ancient world.[2][3]

Satellite craters

Halley crater and its satellite craters taken from Earth in 2012 at the University of Hertfordshire's Bayfordbury Observatory with the telescopes Meade LX200 14" and Lumenera Skynyx 2-1

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Halley.

Halley Latitude Longitude Diameter
B 8.5° S 4.5° E 6 km
C 8.9° S 6.6° E 5 km
G 9.1° S 5.6° E 5 km
K 8.6° S 5.9° E 5 km

References

  1. ↑ Poole, William (2009), "Introduction", in Poole, William, The Man in the Moone, Broadview, pp. 13–62, ISBN 978-1-55111-896-3
  2. ↑ Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 204.
  3. ↑ Hevelius map of the Moon (1647)

Further reading

  • Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
  • Blue, Jennifer (July 25, 2007). "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". USGS. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  • Bussey, B.; Spudis, P. (2004). The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81528-4.
  • Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature. Tudor Publishers. ISBN 978-0-936389-27-1.
  • McDowell, Jonathan (July 15, 2007). "Lunar Nomenclature". Jonathan's Space Report. Retrieved 2007-10-24.
  • Menzel, D. H.; Minnaert, M.; Levin, B.; Dollfus, A.; Bell, B. (1971). "Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU". Space Science Reviews. 12 (2): 136–186. Bibcode:1971SSRv...12..136M. doi:10.1007/BF00171763.
  • Moore, Patrick (2001). On the Moon. Sterling Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-304-35469-6.
  • Price, Fred W. (1988). The Moon Observer's Handbook. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-33500-3.
  • Rükl, Antonín (1990). Atlas of the Moon. Kalmbach Books. ISBN 978-0-913135-17-4.
  • Webb, Rev. T. W. (1962). Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes (6th revised ed.). Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-20917-3.
  • Whitaker, Ewen A. (1999). Mapping and Naming the Moon. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62248-6.
  • Wlasuk, Peter T. (2000). Observing the Moon. Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-193-1.

Related article

  • Wood, Chuck (May 27, 2007). "Drawings". Lunar Photo of the Day. Archived from the original on September 10, 2017.
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