Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Advice on using this book
- Contents
- The Moon – an introduction
- Atlas of lunar formations
- 1 Mare Smythii
- 2a Mare Crisium
- 2b Mare Crisium
- 3 Cleomedes
- 4 Endymion
- 5 Atlas/Hercules
- 6 Montes Taurus
- 7 Palus Somni
- 8a Mare Fecunditatis
- 8b Mare Fecunditatis
- 9 Langrenus/Petavius
- 10 Mare Australe
- 11 Vlacq
- 12 Vallis Rheita
- 13a Mare Nectaris
- 13b Mare Nectaris
- 14 Rupes Altai
- 15 Abulfeda
- 16 Theophilus
- 17 Sinus Asperitatis
- 18 Statio Tranquillitatis
- 19a Mare Tranquillitatis
- 19b Mare Tranquillitatis
- 20a Mare Serenitatis
- 20b Mare Serenitatis
- 21 Posidonius
- 22 Lacus Mortis
- 23 Aristoteles/Eudoxus
- 24 Montes Caucasus
- 25 Autolycus/Aristillus
- 26 Cassini
- 27 Montes Alpes
- 28 Plato
- 29 Montes Teneriffe
- 30 Archimedes
- 31a Montes Apenninus
- 31b Montes Apenninus
- 32 Mare Vaporum
- 33 Rima Ariadaeus
- 34 Rima Hyginus
- 35 Sinus Medii
- 36 Hipparchus
- 37a Ptolemaeus
- 37b Ptolemaeus
- 38 Rupes Recta
- 39 Regiomontanus
- 40 Maurolycus
- 41 South Pole
- 42 Clavius
- 43 Tycho
- 44 Schiller
- 45 Palus Epidemiarum
- 46 Pitatus
- 47 Mare Nubium
- 48 Fra Mauro
- 49 Mare Cognitum
- 50 Mare Insularum
- 51a Copernicus
- 51b Copernicus
- 52 Eratosthenes
- 53a Mare Imbrium
- 53b Mare Imbrium
- 54 Sinus Iridum
- 55 Gruithuisen
- 56 Mare Frigoris
- 57 North Pole
- 58 Aristarchus
- 59 Kepler
- 60 Seleucus
- 61 Reiner
- 62 Letronne/Hansteen
- 63 Gassendi
- 64 Mare Humorum
- 65 Schickard
- 66 Sirsalis
- 67 Grimaldi
- 68 Mare Orientale
- 69 Lunar Farside
- Glossary
- Index of lunar features
- Image credits
- Further reading and references
37a - Ptolemaeus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2012
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Advice on using this book
- Contents
- The Moon – an introduction
- Atlas of lunar formations
- 1 Mare Smythii
- 2a Mare Crisium
- 2b Mare Crisium
- 3 Cleomedes
- 4 Endymion
- 5 Atlas/Hercules
- 6 Montes Taurus
- 7 Palus Somni
- 8a Mare Fecunditatis
- 8b Mare Fecunditatis
- 9 Langrenus/Petavius
- 10 Mare Australe
- 11 Vlacq
- 12 Vallis Rheita
- 13a Mare Nectaris
- 13b Mare Nectaris
- 14 Rupes Altai
- 15 Abulfeda
- 16 Theophilus
- 17 Sinus Asperitatis
- 18 Statio Tranquillitatis
- 19a Mare Tranquillitatis
- 19b Mare Tranquillitatis
- 20a Mare Serenitatis
- 20b Mare Serenitatis
- 21 Posidonius
- 22 Lacus Mortis
- 23 Aristoteles/Eudoxus
- 24 Montes Caucasus
- 25 Autolycus/Aristillus
- 26 Cassini
- 27 Montes Alpes
- 28 Plato
- 29 Montes Teneriffe
- 30 Archimedes
- 31a Montes Apenninus
- 31b Montes Apenninus
- 32 Mare Vaporum
- 33 Rima Ariadaeus
- 34 Rima Hyginus
- 35 Sinus Medii
- 36 Hipparchus
- 37a Ptolemaeus
- 37b Ptolemaeus
- 38 Rupes Recta
- 39 Regiomontanus
- 40 Maurolycus
- 41 South Pole
- 42 Clavius
- 43 Tycho
- 44 Schiller
- 45 Palus Epidemiarum
- 46 Pitatus
- 47 Mare Nubium
- 48 Fra Mauro
- 49 Mare Cognitum
- 50 Mare Insularum
- 51a Copernicus
- 51b Copernicus
- 52 Eratosthenes
- 53a Mare Imbrium
- 53b Mare Imbrium
- 54 Sinus Iridum
- 55 Gruithuisen
- 56 Mare Frigoris
- 57 North Pole
- 58 Aristarchus
- 59 Kepler
- 60 Seleucus
- 61 Reiner
- 62 Letronne/Hansteen
- 63 Gassendi
- 64 Mare Humorum
- 65 Schickard
- 66 Sirsalis
- 67 Grimaldi
- 68 Mare Orientale
- 69 Lunar Farside
- Glossary
- Index of lunar features
- Image credits
- Further reading and references
Summary
Ptolemaeus 9.3°S, 1.9°W
Ptolomaeus is a highly distinctive, very old large crater with a diameter of 164 km. The crater wall is slightly polygonal, and because of its extreme age is heavily eroded. It rises about 2.4 km above the floor of the crater. As with many other structures of this size, a gravitational anomaly (a mascon) is measured over Ptolomaeus. The crater's floor appears flat and smooth in small telescopes, but in larger instruments a wealth of small craters and pits becomes visible. On the northeastern floor there is the prominent crater Ammonius, with a diameter of 8 km, and directly adjoining it to the north is Ptolomaeus B, a shallow, saucer-shaped depression and, even farther north, an additional, unnamed depression.
The eastern crater wall has a peak, which casts a conspicuous shadow directly across Ammonius at sunrise.
On the western part of the crater's floor and under an extremely low angle of illumination, two very shallow, circular depressions may be observed. Directly outside the northeastern wall of the crater there is a short, but very prominent, nameless chain of craters. The appearance of the floor of Ptolomaeus changes dramatically over the course of a lunation. At First and Last Quarters the crater floor appears relatively dark, but near Full Moon becomes very bright.
Davy 11.8°S, 8.1°W
Davy is a small, but conspicuous crater, 31 km in diameter. It lies west of Ptolomaeus, on the northeastern outlier of Mare Nubium. Davy A (15 km) breaches Davy's southeastern crater wall.
Directly adjoining it on the north lies the significantly larger crater Davy Y (about 60 km, 11.0 °S, 7.0 °W), on the floor of which is the well-known crater chain Catena Davy, a series of craterlets, which stretches for a distance of about 50 km.
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- The Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas , pp. 117 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012