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Albategnius-Hipparchus_05062014_180841-UT

(Freely adapted from Wikipedia)

 

Albategnius is an ancient lunar impact crater (dia. 129 Km, dept. 4.4 Km) located in the central highlands. It is named after the Latin nickname for the Muslim astronomer and scientist Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī.

The level interior of Albategnius forms a walled plain, surrounded by the high, terraced rim. The outer wall is somewhat hexagon-shaped, and has been heavily eroded with impacts, valleys and landslips. The rim is broken in the southwest by the smaller crater Klein.

Offset to the west of the crater's midpoint is its central peak, designated Alpha (α) Albategnius. It is longest in extent in the north-south direction, extending for just under 20 kilometres, and has a width about half that. The peak rises to an altitude of roughly 1.5 km, and there is a tiny, relatively fresh crater at the top.

The surface in this area is marked by a set of nearly parallel scars that form channels running roughly in a north-south line, bent slightly to the southeast.

Albategnius is believed to have been featured prominently in an early sketch drawing by Galileo in his book Sidereus Nuncius published in 1610, appearing along the lunar terminator.

Klein is a lunar impact crater (dia. 44 Km, dept. 1.5 Km) that is located across the western rim of the larger crater Albategnius, in the central highlands region of the Moon.

The rim of Klein has been worn and incised by a history of impacts, and the western rim is larger than the remainder. There are low saddles in both the northern and southern parts of the rim, and the crater Klein A cuts through the northeast rim. The floor has been covered and smoothed by a lava flow, and there is a small central peak.

Hipparchus is the degraded remnant of a lunar crater (dia. 150 Km, dept. 3.3 Km). It is located to the southeast of Sinus Medii, near the center of the visible Moon. To the south is the prominent crater Albategnius. Horrocks lies entirely within the northeast rim of the crater. Halley is attached to the south rim, and Hind lies to the southeast. To the north-northeast is the bowl-shaped Pickering, and the flooded Saunder is located off the northeast rim.

This feature is an ancient crater that has been subject to considerable modification due to subsequent impacts. The western rim of Hipparchus has been all but worn away from impact erosion, and only low hills and rises in the surface remain to outline the feature. The wall to the east is somewhat more intact, but it too is heavily worn. A pair of deep clefts lie in the western wall. These parallel a sets of scars running through the south-central highlands.

The crater floor has been partially resurfaced by basaltic lava flow. The southwest part of the floor, however, is slightly raised and much more rugged than the remainder. A few small rises and the raised partial rim of a flooded crater are all that remain of a central massif.

Gaps in the northwest rim of Hipparchus form valleys that connect with the mare to the northwest. A rille named Rima Réaumur runs from this site to the outer wall of Réaumur.

Horrocks is a lunar impact crater (dia. 30 Km, dept. 3.0 Km) located entirely within the eroded northeast rim of the much larger walled plain Hipparchus. The crater Horrocks was named after the 17th-century English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.

 

The rim of Horrocks is somewhat irregular and polygonal, particularly with an outward protrusion on the eastern rim. It has a small outer rampart. The inner wall is slumped, particularly along the northwest where it forms a heap of talus. The interior floor is uneven, and it has a central mountain and hills.




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