Crater Chains

[John]

Last night I observed the crater chain near the crater Davy known as the Catena Davy. What a fascinating feature - there are 4 larger craters in a line and lots of much smaller ones joining those together in a line right across a plain and up and over a rampart as well.

Resolving the smaller craters in the chain was challenging and needed high powers and steady moments.

The formation of this feature is thought to have involved a multiple simultaneous impact strike by a fragmented body. It must have been an amazing event as it happened !

What other similar crater chain features are there to explore on the Moon ?

This is Catena Davy as the observer sees it (good conditions, high magnification) and also, below, an amazing oblique image from NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Programme:

 

 

[Waddensky]

Wow, what a wonderful feature. I should get into lunar observing more, a lot of treasures to discover.

[Kyle Allen]

Hi John. I was looking at this last night - it certainly is very interesting. I found an image taken from Apollo 12 similar to the second image you attached. It's fascinating seeing lunar features from a different perspective to what we are used to on Earth! 

Another nice crater chain I saw last night was between Copernicus and Eratosthenes, running North from a faint, ghostly crater called Stadius 😀

[CraigT82]

I also love looking at these 'trails' of craters, my personal favourite is the chain that lies on Rima Hyginus, although they are collapse pits related to the Rima itself (a graben) rather than impact craters.

They range in diameter from 4km down to 1km so challenging visually.

[John]

Yes, I saw those in the Hyginus Rille last night as well.

Similar looking feature but with a quite different formation cause. The moon is a fascinating place  

[PeterW]

Moore lists another 10 Catenae for you to go after, though none are as long or impressive. Faintly could see a bright line of Catena Davy last week, quite happy with the 80mm.

Peter