Halley (lunar crater)

For the crater on Mars, see Halley (Martian crater).

Halley

Apollo 16 image
Coordinates	8.0°S 5.7°E / -8.0; 5.7
Diameter	34.59 km (21.49 mi)
Depth	2.49 km (1.55 mi)
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 a walled plain named Hipparchus. Its diameter is 35 km. 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 Sculpture. 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.

This formation is named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742). 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. Its modern designation was formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1935.

Satellite craters

Halley and its satellite features as seen from Earth

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

Sources

• Andersson, L. E.; Whitaker, E. A. (1982). NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA RP-1097.
• 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. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. 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. S2CID 122125855.
• 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.
• 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.

External links

• Halley at The Moon Wiki
• LTO-77C2 Halley — L&PI topographic map

Related article

• Wood, Chuck (May 27, 2007). "Drawings". Lunar Photo of the Day. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011.