Plato 51.6°N, 9.4°W

Plato is a large crater, 109 km in diameter, with an average depth of only 1 km. A few peaks on the eastern and western crater rim reach a height of 2 km. The crater is visible even with binoculars and is more-or-less divided in two at Half-Moon phases: half illuminated, and the other half lying in the darkness of the lunar night. Plato is sometimes referred to as ‘the big black lake’. In fact, the crater floor of Plato is one of the darkest areas on the nearside of the Moon. Plato is nearly circular, but because of limbforeshortening appears elliptical to an observer on Earth. Two large, triangular landslips are visible in the western edge of the crater. Similar wall or mountain landslides are also found in the craters Aristoteles and Gassendi.

Plato is extensively lava-flooded, and even the peaks of the central mountains – which must have been present in a crater of this size – lie below the lava surface. A normal crater of this size should be between 3 and 4 km deep. The upper surface of the lava appears completely flat, level, and without any features. Larger telescopes and good seeing conditions, however, enable five crater pits (about 2 km across) to be seen. Large telescopes with apertures of 300 mm and above and the use of webcam techniques show as many as 15 such pits.