The mountain has the former official name of ‘Schneckenberg’ (‘Snail Mountain’, at 9.0°N, 6.5☎). The crater Hyginus itself also appears to be of volcanic origin, because there is no form of crater wall and the floor is absolutely flat and level – it appears as if it were a cylinder punched out of the lunar surface.Ībout 35 km north of the crater Hyginus lies a small mountain, that appears spiral, rather like the letter ‘e’. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that there are many nearby areas that are coated with dark volcanic ash (they are DMD regions). Rima Hyginus is probably an old lava channel and the craterlets may have been responsible for repeated eruptions of volcanic ash. This section is interrupted by nine craterlets, which lie directly in the rille. The eastern section runs nearly parallel to Rima Ariadaeus, whereas the western section bends at the crater Hyginus by about 35° towards the north. There are many interesting surface features in this area which are even visible in small telescopes. It lies nearly in the centre of the nearside of the Moon and thus contains the origin of the system of lunar coordinates. Hyginus is extended on the north by an unnamed small crater of about 4 km in diameter.īoth sections of the rille are about 400 m deep. Sinus Medii (‘Central Bay’), is a moderately large lava area about 350 km across. Alan Chu Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas Wolfgang Paech Mario Weig HC OOP Educational Level. It consists of two linear sections, each of about 11 km in length, and is interrupted in the centre by the crater Hyginus (11 km, 7.8°N, 6.3☎). Like the Alps, the Apennines are the remnants of the rim of the Imbrium Basin that have not been flooded by lava. The name was first used by the Polish astronomer and lunar observer Hevelius (16111687). They were named after a chain of mountains in the Urals.Rima Hyginus is an extraordinary feature and, together with Rimae Triesnecker, is the best-known of all rilles. The Apennines are the greatest range of mountains on the Moons nearside. The Riphaean Mountains lie between Oceanus Procellarum (to the west) and Mare Cognitum (in the east). As a reminder of this occasion, the name Mare Cognitum was introduced officially into lunar nomenclature by the IAU in 1964. It showed a lava plain saturated with craterlets and crater pits, whereas observations from Earth did not show any craters in this area. The mission ushered in a new stage in lunar research. The lunar Alps are a portion of the wall of the enormous Imbrium Basin. They border the northeastern area of Mare Imbrium over a distance of about 280 km, and have an average height of 2.4 km. They were the first close-up images of the Moon's surface, with an image resolution of just about 0.5 m. The Alps, a tremendous range of mountains, were named by the Polish astronomer Hevelius (16111687). On 31 July 1964, the American lunar probe Ranger 7 crashed southwest of the crater Bonpland and transmitted images until 0.2 seconds before the impact (a total of 4308 images). Using the latest methods in digital photography and image processing, The Cambridge Photographic Star Atlas presents the whole sky through large-scale. Until 1964 it was considered to be part of Mare Nubium. The range stretches over a total length of approximately 520 km, and contains the highest peaks. In the northwest it is bordered by Montes Riphaeus (probably the remnants of a large flooded crater) and in the south and southeast by Mare Humorum and Mare Nubium. The Caucasus is a ruggedly craggy, heavily eroded, extensive mountain range, and the direct continuation of the Apennines, separated from the latter by an approximately 50 km wide, flat, lava-flooded ‘strait’. The basin probably arose in the early Imbrium period of the lunar timescale, and it was flooded by lava in the late Imbrium period. The Rimae Riccioli lie in the southern portion of the. Riccioli is a large complex crater, 145 km in diameter.

Because Grimaldi is near the western limb of the Moon, observation of the Grimaldi Basin and its rille system requires favourable libration angles. Mare Cognitum (the ‘Known Sea’) has a diameter of approximately 370 km and grades without any transition into Oceanus Procellarum in the west. Grimaldi is associated with a mascon, a gravitational anomaly.

Cambridge photographic moon atlas