Gassendi Crater

[geoflewis]

Taken on 25 June 2018 with my C14 and ASI120MM-s camera using Red filter and x2 TeleVue Powermate. NB actually uploaded on 1 July 2018, so outside the challenge date, so will understand if excluded. It is one of several lunar close up images that I shot on 25 June, but I had no time to process them yet due to too many clear skies imaging the planets.....!!

Gassendi is a large (diameter 68 miles/110 km) lunar impact crater feature located at the northern edge of Mare Humorum. The formation has been inundated by lava during the formation of the mare, so only the rim and the multiple central peaks remain above the surface. The outer rim is worn and eroded, although it retains a generally circular form. A smaller crater – Gassendi A – intrudes into the northern rim, and joins a rough uplift at the northwest part of the floor. The crater pair bear a curious resemblance to a diamond ring.

In the southern part of the crater floor is a semi-circular ridge-like formation that is concentric with the outer rim. It is in the southern part where the rim dips down to its lowest portion, and a gap appears at the most southern point. The rim varies in height from as little as 200 meters to as high as 2.5 kilometers above the surface. The floor has numerous hummocks and rough spots. There is also a system of rilles that criss-crosses the floor, named the Rimae Gassendi.

On some older maps the crater Gassendi A was called Clarkson, after the British amateur astronomer and selenographer Roland L. T. Clarkson, but this name is not officially recognized by the IAU and the name has been removed.

Gassendi was considered for a possible landing site during the Apollo program, but was never selected. However, it was imaged at high resolution by Lunar Orbiter 5, for this reason. Source Wikipedia.

Regards, Geof