Selenography
Encyclopedia
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. Historically, the principal concern of selenographists was the mapping and naming of the lunar maria
Lunar mare
The lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich compositions, and...
, crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
s, mountain ranges, and other various features. This task was largely finished when high resolution images of the near
Near side of the Moon
The near side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned towards the Earth, whereas the opposite side is the far side of the Moon. Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth because the Moon rotates about its spin axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth, a...
and far
Far side of the Moon
The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon...
sides of the Moon were obtained by orbiting spacecraft during the early space era. Nevertheless, some regions of the Moon remain poorly imaged (especially near the poles) and the exact locations of many features are uncertain by several kilometers. Today, selenography is considered to be a subdiscipline of selenology, which itself is most often referred to as just "lunar science." The word selenography is derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
lunar deity Selene
Selene
In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon"....
and γράφω (graphō, “I write”).
History
The idea that the Moon was not perfectly smooth can be traced as far back as approximately 450 BC450 BC
Year 450 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year of the decemviri...
, when Democritus
Democritus
Democritus was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. He was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher and pupil of Leucippus, who formulated an atomic theory for the cosmos....
believed that there were "lofty mountains and hollow valleys" on the Moon. However, it was not until the end of the 15th century when serious study of selenography began. Around 1603, William Gilbert compiled the first lunar drawing based on naked-eye observations. Others soon followed, and when the telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
made its appearance, drawings were begun that at first were not very accurate, but soon became better as optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
improved. In the early 18th century, the libration
Libration
In astronomy, libration is an oscillating motion of orbiting bodies relative to each other, notably including the motion of the Moon relative to Earth, or of Trojan asteroids relative to planets.-Lunar libration:...
s of the Moon were measured, showing that more than 50 percent of the lunar surface was visible to observers. In 1750, Johann Meyer produced the first reliable set of lunar coordinates
Coordinate system
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. The order of the coordinates is significant and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by...
that would enable astronomers to locate features on the Moon.
The systematic mapping of the Moon officially began in 1779 when Johann Schröter started making meticulous observations and measurements of the lunar features. The first published large map of the Moon, four sheets in size, was published in 1834 by Johann Heinrich von Mädler
Johann Heinrich von Mädler
Johann Heinrich von Mädler was a German astronomer.He was orphaned at age 19 by an outbreak of typhus, and found himself responsible for raising three younger sisters...
, who followed this up by publishing a book entitled, "The Universal Selenography. All measurements were done by direct observation until March 1840, when J.W. Draper, using a five-inch reflector, produced a daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
of the Moon, thus introducing photography to the astronomical world. At first, the images were of very poor quality, but like with the telescope two hundred years earlier, they very quickly became better. By 1890 lunar photography had become a recognized branch of astronomical research.
The 20th century brought more advances to study of the Moon. In 1959, Russia's Luna 3
Luna 3
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...
sent back the first photographs of the far side of the Moon
Far side of the Moon
The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that is permanently turned away, and is not visible from the surface of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and was first directly observed by human eyes when the Apollo 8 mission orbited the Moon...
, giving the world the first glimpse of the until-then unseen side of our satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
. The United States launched the Ranger
Ranger program
The Ranger program was a series of unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, returning those images until they were destroyed...
spacecraft between 1961 and 1965 to take photographs right down to the instant they impacted the surface, the Lunar Orbiter
Lunar Orbiter program
The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five unmanned lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from lunar orbit.All five missions were successful,...
s between 1966 and 1967 to photograph the Moon from orbit, and the Surveyors
Surveyor program
The Surveyor Program was a NASA program that, from 1966 through 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon...
between 1966 and 1968 to take photos and soft land on the lunar surface. The Russian Lunokhod
Lunokhod programme
Lunokhod was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. The 1969 Lunokhod 1A was destroyed during launch, the 1970 Lunokhod 1 and the 1973 Lunokhod 2 landed on the moon and the 1977 Lunokhod was never launched...
s 1
Lunokhod 1
Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...
(1970) and 2
Lunokhod 2
Lunokhod 2 was the second of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program....
(1973) traversed almost 50 km of the lunar surface, obtaining detailed images of the lunar surface. The Clementine
Clementine mission
Clementine was a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA...
spacecraft obtained the first near global map of the Moon's topography, as well as multispectral images. All of these missions sent back photographs that were of increasingly better resolution.
Mapping and naming the Moon
Knowth
Knowth is a Neolithic passage grave and an ancient monument of Brú na Bóinne in the valley of the River Boyne in Ireland.Knowth is the largest of all passage graves situated within the Brú na Bóinne complex. The site consists of one large mound and 17 smaller satellite tombs...
, County Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The tomb was carbon dated
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
to 3330–2790 BCE. However, this does not qualify as a map because no names were given to the features. Likewise, historical drawings of the Moon were made by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, Thomas Harriot
Thomas Harriot
Thomas Harriot was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. Some sources give his surname as Harriott or Hariot or Heriot. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to Great Britain and Ireland...
(1609), Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
(1609) and Charles Scheiner
(1614).
The first serious attempts at naming the features of the Earth's moon as seen through a telescope were made by Michel Florent van Langren
Michael van Langren
Michael Florent van Langren was a Dutch astronomer and cartographer. His Latinized name is Langrenus.- Family :Michael van Langren was the youngest member of a family of Dutch cartographers...
in 1645. His work is considered the first true map of the Moon, as it portrayed the various lunar maria
Lunar mare
The lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich compositions, and...
, crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
s, and mountain peaks and ranges. Many of the features were given names that had a distinctly Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
religious character, using the period names of Catholic royalty for craters and the names of Catholic saints for the capes and promontories. The maria were given Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
names of seas and oceans. Minor craters were given the names of astronomers, mathematicians, and other notable scholars of the past and present periods.
In 1647, Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius
Johannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish:Some sources refer to Hevelius as German:*Encyplopedia Britannica * of the Royal Society was a councilor and mayor of Danzig , Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
produced the rival work titled Selenographia, which formed the first lunar atlas. Hevelius ignored the nomenclature of Van Langren, and instead adopted the names of terrestrial features. These were mapped in a manner that corresponded to their place names on the Earth, particularly with respect to the ancient world as known to the Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
and Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
civilizations. This work of Hevelius proved influential among European astronomers of the period, and the Selenographia served as the standard reference work for over a century.
The modern scheme of lunar nomenclature was devised by Giambattista Riccioli, a Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
priest and scholar who lived in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. His Almagestum Novum was published in 1651 as a defense of the Catholic views during the Counter Reformation. In particular he argued against the views espoused by Galileo
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei , was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism...
, Kepler
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican...
, and Copernicus that favored a heliocentric model with elliptical planetary orbits. The work contained scientific reference material based on knowledge of the period, and was widely used by Jesuit teachers of the time. However the only significant aspect of the work to survive to the present period is Riccioli's system of lunar nomenclature.
The lunar illustrations in the Almagestum Novum were drawn by a fellow Jesuit teacher by the name of Francesco Grimaldi. The nomenclature was devised based on a subdivision of the visible lunar surface into octants, numbered in the Roman style from I through VIII. Octant I formed the northwest section, and subsequent octants proceeded in a clockwise direction aligned with the compass directions. Thus the octant VI lay to the south, and would include Clavius
Clavius (crater)
Clavius is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon, and it is the third largest crater on the visible near side. It is located in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon, to the south of the prominent ray crater Tycho.- Description :...
and Tycho
Tycho (crater)
Tycho is a prominent lunar impact crater located in the southern lunar highlands, named after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe . To the south is the crater Street; to the east is Pictet, and to the north-northeast is Sasserides. The surface around Tycho is replete with craters of various sizes,...
craters.
The naming scheme had two components, the first used for the broad features of land and seas, and the second for the craters. Riccioli used the names of various historical effects and weather conditions attributed to the Moon throughout history. Thus there were the seas of crises (Mare Crisium), serenity (Mare Serenitatis), and fertility (Mare Fecunditatis). There were also the seas of rain (Mare Imbrium), clouds (Mare Nubium), and cold (Mare Frigoris). These were given their names in the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
form.
The continental areas between the seas were given comparable names, but were opposite the names used for the seas. Thus there were the lands of
sterility (Terra Sterilitatis), heat (Terra Caloris), and liveliness (Terra Vitae). However these names for the highland regions are no longer used on recent maps. See List of features on the Moon#Terra for a full list.
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, Atlas
Atlas (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa...
, and Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
. Toward the middle in octants IV, V, and VI were names
from the period of the ancient Roman empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, such as Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Tacitus, and Taruntius
Lucius Taruntius Firmanus
Lucius Tarutius Firmanus was a Roman philosopher, mathematician, and astrologer. ....
. Toward the bottom half of the map were placed scholars, writers, and philosophers from medieval Europe and Arabic regions.
The outer extremes of octants V, VI, VII, as well as all of octant VIII were devoted to contemporaries of Riccioli. The last also contained features named for Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. These were "banished" here far from the "ancients", as a political gesture to the Catholic Church. A number of craters around the Mare Nectaris
Mare Nectaris
The Sea of Nectar is a small lunar mare or sea located between the Sea of Tranquillity and the Sea of Fecundity . Montes Pyrenaeus borders the mare to the west and the large crater near the south center of the mare is known as Rosse...
were given the names of saints of the Catholic Church, following the tradition of Van Langren. These, however, were all connected in some aspect with astronomy. Later maps dropped the "St." from the names of these craters.
Riccioli's system of nomenclature was widely adopted after the publication of his Almagestum novum, and many of the names remain in common use today. The system was scientifically inclusive and was considered elegant and poetic in style, so it appealed widely to the thinkers of the period. It was also readily extensible with new names following the same scheme. Thus it came to replace the nomenclature of Van Langren and Hevelius.
Later astronomers and lunar mappers augmented the nomenclature with additional names of features. The most notable among these contributors was Johann Schröter who published a highly detailed map of the Moon in 1791: the Selenotopografisches Fragmenten. Schröter's adoption of Riccioli's often-used naming scheme effectively made it the standard system of lunar nomenclature. Riccioli's naming scheme was formally established as the doctrinal lunar nomenclature by a vote of the IAU
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
in 1935, which gave standard names to 600 lunar features.
The system was later expanded and updated by the IAU during the 1960s, but the new designations were limited to the names of deceased scientists. After Soviet spacecraft photographed the far side of the Moon, many of the newly-discovered features were named after Soviet scientists and engineers. All subsequent names have been assigned by the IAU
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
, although were assigned to still-living individuals, such as astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s in Project Apollo
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
.
Satellite craters
The nomenclature system for identifying satellite craters was originally devised by Johann Mädler. The craters that surrounded a major crater were identified by means of a letter. These subsidiary craters were usually smaller than the crater with which they were associated, but there are some exceptions. The craters could be assigned letters A through Z, with I omitted. (As the large majority of crater names were masculine, the main craters were termed "patronymicPatronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
" craters.)
The assignment of the letters to satellite craters was originally a somewhat haphazard process, and they were typically assigned in order of significance rather than by their location. Precedence depended on the angle of illumination from the Sun at the time of the telescope observation, which could change over the course of the lunar day, so that in many cases the assignments could be made seemingly at random.
In a number of cases the satellite crater could lie closer to a main crater other than the one with which it is identified. To identify the patronymic crater, Mädler placed the identifying letter to the side of the feature mid-point closest to the main crater. This also had the advantage of allowing the names of the main craters to be omitted from the maps when identifying the subsidiary features.
Over the course of time, many of the satellite craters were assigned an eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
by lunar observers. The process of naming lunar features was formerly assumed by the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
(IAU) in 1919. The commission for naming these features formally adopted the convention of using capital Roman letters to identify craters and valleys.
When suitable maps of the far side became available by 1966, Ewen A. Whitaker assigned the names to satellite features based on the angle of the location relative to the main crater. A satellite crater located due north of the main crater was given the identifier 'Z'. The full 360° circle about the crater was then subdivided evenly into 24 parts, like a 24-hour clock. Each "hour" angle running clockwise was assigned a letter, beginning with 'A' at 1 o'clock. (The letters I and O were omitted, resulting in only 24 letters.) Thus a crater due south of the main crater was given the letter 'M'.
Historical lunar maps
maps and atlases, arranged in chronological order by
publication date.
- Michel van Langren, engraved map, 1645.
- Johannes HeveliusJohannes HeveliusJohannes Hevelius Some sources refer to Hevelius as Polish:Some sources refer to Hevelius as German:*Encyplopedia Britannica * of the Royal Society was a councilor and mayor of Danzig , Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
, Selenographia, 1647. - Giovanni RiccioliGiovanni Battista RiccioliGiovanni Battista Riccioli was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order...
and Francesco Grimaldi, Almagestum novum, 1651. - Giovanni Domenico CassiniGiovanni Domenico CassiniThis article is about the Italian-born astronomer. For his French-born great-grandson, see Jean-Dominique Cassini.Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an Italian/French mathematician, astronomer, engineer, and astrologer...
, engraved map, 1679 (reprinted in 1787). - Tobias MayerTobias MayerTobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.He was born at Marbach, in Württemberg, and brought up at Esslingen in poor circumstances. A self-taught mathematician, he had already published two original geometrical works when, in 1746, he entered J.B. Homann's...
, engraved map, 1749, published in 1775. - Johann Hieronymus Schröter, Selenotopografisches Fragmenten, 1st volume 1791, 2nd volume 1802.
- John RussellJohn Russell (painter)John Russell was an English painter renowned for his portrait work in oils and pastels, and as a writer and teacher of painting techniques.-Life and work:...
, engraved images, 1805. - Wilhelm LohrmannWilhelm Gotthelf LohrmannWilhelm Gotthelf Lohrmann was a Saxon cartographer, astronomer, meteorologist and patron of the sciences....
, Topographie der sichtbaren Mondoberflaeche, Leipzig, 1824. - Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler, Mappa Selenographica totam Lunae hemisphaeram visibilem complectens, Berlin, 1834-36.
- Edmund Neison, The Moon, London, 1876.
- Julius SchmidtJohann Friedrich Julius SchmidtJohann Friedrich Julius Schmidt was a German astronomer and geophysicist.-Biography:...
, Charte der Gebirge des Mondes, Berlin, 1878. - Thomas Gwyn ElgerThomas Gwyn ElgerThomas Gwyn Empy Elger was an English lunar mapper and the first director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association ....
, The Moon, London, 1895. - Johann KriegerJohann Nepomuk KriegerJohann Nepomuk Krieger was a draftsman and selenographer. The crater Krieger on the Moon is named in his honor.Krieger was born in Bavaria, the son of a master brewer. At an early age he gained an interest in astronomy. He only received school education up to the age of 15, when he departed...
, Mond-Atlas, 1898. Two additional volumes were published posthumously in 1912 by the Vienna Academy of Sciences. - Walter GoodacreWalter GoodacreWalter Goodacre was a British businessman and amateur astronomer.He was the second Director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association. In 1910, he published a 77" diameter hand drawn map of the moon. In 1931, he published a larger book of maps of the moon's surface with...
, Map of the Moon, London, 1910. - Mary A. BlaggMary Adela BlaggMary Adela Blagg was an English astronomer.She was born in Cheadle, Staffordshire, and lived her entire life there. Mary was the daughter of a solicitor, John Charles Blagg, and France Caroline Foottit. She trained herself in mathematics by reading her brother's textbooks...
and Karl MüllerKarl MüllerKarl Müller may refer to:*Karl Otfried Müller , German classical scholar and admirer of Dorians and Spartans*Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller , German classical scholar and editor of Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum...
, Named Lunar Formations, 2 volumes, London, 1935. - Philipp FauthPhilipp Johann Heinrich FauthPhilipp Johann Heinrich Fauth was a German selenographer. Born in Bad Dürkheim, he worked as a schoolteacher. As an amateur astronomer, he studied the formations on the Moon with great intensity and meticulousness...
, Unser Mond, Bremen, 1936. - Hugh P. WilkinsHugh Percy WilkinsHugh Percy Wilkins was a Welsh-born engineer and amateur astronomer.He was born in Carmarthen, where he received his early education, then lived near Llanelli prior to moving to England...
, 300-inch Moon map, 1951. - Gerard Kuiper et al., Photographic Lunar Atlas, Chicago, 1960.
- Ewen A. Whitaker et al., Rectified Lunar Atlas, Tucson, 1963.
- Hermann Fauth and Philipp Fauth (posthumously), Mondatlas, 1964.
- Gerard Kuiper et al., System of Lunar Craters, 1966.
- Yu I. Efremov et al., Atlas Obratnoi Storony Luny, Moscow, 1967–1975.
- NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, Lunar Topographic Orthophotomaps, 1978. - Antonín RüklAntonín RüklAntonín Rükl is an astronomer, cartographer, and author from the Czech Republic.He was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia. As a student he developed what was to be a life-long interest in Astronomy...
, Atlas of the Moon, 2004.
See also
- Geology of the MoonGeology of the MoonThe geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth...
- Lunar mareLunar mareThe lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich compositions, and...
- List of maria on the Moon
- List of craters on the Moon
- List of features on the Moon
- List of mountains on the Moon
- List of valleys on the Moon
- Planetary nomenclaturePlanetary nomenclaturePlanetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. The task of assigning official names to features is taken up by the International...
- Planetary sciencePlanetary sciencePlanetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
- Selenographic coordinatesSelenographic coordinatesSelenographic coordinates are used to refer to locations on the surface of Earth's moon. Any position on the lunar surface can be referenced by specifying two numerical values, which are comparable to the latitude and longitude of Earth...
- Google MoonGoogle MoonGoogle Moon is a service similar to Google Maps that shows satellite images of the Moon. It was launched by Google on July 20, 2005, the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing...