Van Serg (crater)

Van Serg
Location of Van Serg crater in Taurus-Littrow Valley. South Massif is at lower left, North Massif is at top center, and Sculptured Hills are at upper right. Scale bar is 5 km
Coordinates 20°14′N 30°50′E / 20.23°N 30.83°E / 20.23; 30.83Coordinates: 20°14′N 30°50′E / 20.23°N 30.83°E / 20.23; 30.83
Diameter 100 m[1]
Eponym Astronaut-named feature

Van Serg is a feature on Earth's Moon, a crater in Taurus-Littrow valley. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt visited it in 1972, on the Apollo 17 mission, during EVA 3. Van Serg was designated Geology Station 9.

To the northwest is Shakespeare and to the northeast are Cochise and Geology Station 8 at the base of the Sculptured Hills. To the south is Sherlock, and to the southwest are the Apollo 17 landing site and the large crater Camelot.

The crater was named by the astronauts after Harvard University geology professor Hugh McKinstry, who sometimes wrote satire under the pseudonym "Nicholas Van Serg".[2] (Songwriter, humorist and academic Tom Lehrer, who attended and taught at Harvard, suggested that McKinstry's pseudonym was inspired by the Vanserg Building at Harvard, which derived its name from its original purpose: a dining hall for the "Veterans Administration, Naval Science, Electronic Research, and Graduates".[3] )

View of Van Serg with Eugene Cernan at right. North Massif is on the horizon.
Apollo 17 panoramic camera image.

References

  1. ↑ Van Serg, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
  2. ↑ The Valley of Taurus-Littrow, Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Journal, Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright 1995 by Eric M. Jones
  3. ↑ http://harvardmagazine.com/1997/03/pump.html
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.