Astronomy:Halley (lunar crater)

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Short description: Crater on the Moon
Halley
Halley crater AS16-M-0982.jpg
Apollo 16 image
Diameter35 km
Depth2.5 km
Colongitude355° at sunrise
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. Its diameter is 35 km. The crater is named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley.[1] 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.[2] To the southwest of Halley is the large crater Albategnius, and due east lies the slightly smaller Hind.

The rim of Halley is somewhat worn, the east being scoured by debris from the Imbrium basin, hence forming part of the Imbrium Scultpure. The interior floor of Halley is relatively flat, being filled with material of the same albedo of the surrounding terrain, and is probably melt from the Imbrium impact.

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. "Halley (lunar crater)". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. Poole, William (2009), "Introduction", in Poole, William, The Man in the Moone, Broadview, pp. 13–62, ISBN 978-1-55111-896-3 

Further reading

External links

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