Lunar Lacus

Lunar Lakes (Lacus)

Note: the lower (and main) part of this page contains all sorts of lists and catalogs related to low-albedo spots or low-albedo regions, for example the dark dish-shaped craters such as Plato, IAU-lettered dark spots and craters, officially unnamed dark regions, unofficially named or nicknamed "dark lakes", and also the ancient lists from Langrenus and Hevelius (their own Lacus regions).

Enrique Luque Cervigón (a labeled view of the nearside's dark Lacus formations, as they appear on the Full Moon).

Official IAU list of Lacus formations
Lacus Aestatis - Lacus Autumni - Lacus Bonitatis - Lacus Doloris - Lacus Excellentiae - Lacus Felicitatis - Lacus Gaudii - Lacus Hiemalis - Lacus Lenitatis - Lacus Luxuriae (on the moon's far side) - Lacus Mortis - Lacus Oblivionis (on the moon's far side) - Lacus Odii - Lacus Perseverantiae - Lacus Solitudinis (on the moon's far side) - Lacus Somniorum - Lacus Spei - Lacus Temporis - Lacus Timoris - Lacus Veris

Disallowed nomenclature of Van Langren (Langrenus)
(source: pages 197 and 200 in E.A.Whitaker's Mapping and Naming the Moon, Appendix D, sections -B- and -F-).
- Lacus Masii (Lacus Excellentiae).
- Lacus Panciroli (Plato).
- Lacus Possidoni (Grimaldi dark area).
- Lacus Scientiae (eastern part of Lacus Somniorum).

Disallowed nomenclature of J.Hewelcke (Hevelius)
(source: pages 201-208 in Ewen A. Whitaker's Mapping and Naming the Moon, Appendix E: Hevelius's nomenclature).
- Lacus Borysthenes (western portion of Lacus Somniorum).
- Lacus Corocondametis (Palus Somni).
- Lacus Herculeus (three low-albedo spots southeast of Copernicus).
- Lacus Hyperboreus Inferior (Lacus Spei).
- Lacus Hyperboreus Superior (Endymion).
- Lacus Major Occidentalis (Mare Marginis).
- Lacus Marinus (west of Archimedes) (or was it perhaps the floor of Archimedes itself, surrounded by the mountains which J.Hewelcke called Mons Argentarius?).
- Lacus Meridionalis (low-albedo region southwest of Schiller).
- Lacus Minor Occidentalis (low-albedo regions Hansen B and west of it).
- Lacus Niger Major (Plato).
- Lacus Niger Minor (low-albedo spot north of Montes Alpes).
- Lacus Thospitis (Fracastorius).
- Lacus Trasimenus (Palus Putredinis).

Plato-esque dark craters, all officially named by the IAU (and all of them more-or-less dish shaped)
- Billy
- Bowditch (immediately north of Lacus Solitudinis on the moon's farside).
- Chretien C (farside crater).
- Cruger
- Davisson (farside crater).
- Dubyago
- Endymion
- Firmicus
- Gernsback (farside crater, part of Mare Australe).
- Goddard (eastern limb crater).
- Grimaldi
- Harlan (part of Mare Australe).
- Jeans X (part of Mare Australe).
- Jenner (this is perhaps de darkest one of all the dark dish shaped craters in Mare Australe) (farside crater, libration zone).
- Kohlschutter (farside crater).
- Lacroix R
- Lassell
- Lomonosov (farside crater).
- Lyot (part of Mare Australe).
- Maksutov (farside crater).
- Oken (part of Mare Australe).
- Plato (perhaps this is the most well-known example of the dish shaped dark craters).
- Pomortsev

Dark lacus-like spots in IAU-named craters
- Aitken (farside crater).
- Alphonsus
- Apollo (farside basin).
- Apollonius
- Arnold E
- Baldet (farside crater).
- Bolyai (farside crater).
- Buys Ballot (farside crater, immediately north-northwest of Lacus Luxuriae).
- Campbell (farside crater).
- Compton (farside crater).
- Condorcet
- Curie (eastern limb crater, libration zone) (the dark spot in this crater is located west-southwest of Curie K).
- Gerard Q inner and outer (crater-combination on the northwestern limb, libration zone).
- Hedin
- Hubble (eastern libration zone crater), and also Hubble C
- Humboldt
- Isaev (farside crater).
- Joliot (farside crater).
- Jules Verne (farside crater).
- Karrer (farside crater).
- Komarov (farside crater immediately southeast of Mare Moscoviense).
- Langemak (farside crater).
- Lavoisier (western limb crater, libration zone), and also Lavoisier E, F, and H
- Leeuwenhoek (farside crater).
- Leibnitz (farside crater).
- Levi Civita S (farside crater).
- Lyell
- Macrobius W (immediately north of Lacus Bonitatis).
- Minkowski (farside crater).
- Neper (eastern limb crater).
- Oppenheimer (farside crater).
- Pauli (farside crater).
- Piazzi
- Riccioli (western limb crater).
- Rocca A and Rocca Q (with Lacus Aestatis) (south of Grimaldi).
- Roche (farside crater), and also Roche V
- Rosseland (farside crater).
- Rumford (farside crater).
- Schickard
- Schluter
- Thomson (part of farside basin Mare Ingenii).
- Tsiolkovskiy (farside crater).
- Ulugh Beigh (western limb crater, libration zone).
- Vasco da Gama R
- Voskresenskiy (western limb crater, libration zone).
- Waterman (farside crater, south of Tsiolkovskiy).

Small dark lake-like craters and low-albedo regions, lettered by the IAU
(this list needs to be updated).
- Drebbel E (part of the semi-circle shaped formation of dark spots southwest of Mare Humorum) (seems to have been called Nobelarii by Langrenus).
- Fourier A (very near the "centre" of the semi-circle shaped formation of dark spots southwest of Mare Humorum).
- Hansen B (also called Olblatt by Franz) (this is the most eastern one of the smiling cat's eyes, see Lacus Risus Felis).
- Lacroix R (west of Harold Hill's Basaltic Lava Areas south-southwest of Vieta).
- Lehmann E (part of the semi-circle shaped formation of dark spots southwest of Mare Humorum).
- Lepaute E (in the Dark V feature south of Mare Humorum).
- Mees Y (immediately north of Mees itself)(see LAC 54 and LAC 72 in the Clementine Atlas of the Moon)(pages 108 and 144).
- Rocca A (immediately east of Rocca itself)(see LAC 73 and LAC 74 in the Clementine Atlas of the Moon)(pages 146 and 148).
- Schubert N (a typical dark lunar lake at 1.8° North/ 72.7° East, frequently photographed during the orbital mission of Apollo 10)(see also the lower left corner of LAC 63 in the Clementine Atlas of the Moon)(page 126).

Catalog of small dark lake-like regions, named or nicknamed by dedicated moon observers (not IAU-related)
(to get a good overview of the moon's low-albedo spots and craters, see the LROC ACT-REACT QUICK MAP, WAC MOSAIC - NO SHADOWS).
- Dark "V" (a nickname from D.Caes for the curious dark V-shaped area at 36°30' South/ 35° West)(between Lacus Excellentiae and Elger).
- Lacus Apollo 1 (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the rather large dark region in the triangle of craters Grissom, White, and Chaffee, at the southern part of farside basin Apollo).
- Lacus Apollo 8 (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the small dark region in the triangle of craters Lovell, Borman, and Anders at the southeastern part of farside basin Apollo).
- Lacus Bose (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the dark region immediately northeast of Bose, in which a curious system of wrinkle ridges is detectable; called Dorsa Bose).
- Lacus Daly (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the small dark area to the north-northeast of Daly).
- Lacus Laplace (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the "flat" region about halfway between Promontorium Laplace and Maupertuis).
- Lacus Risus Felis (the Smiling Cat, an unofficial name from C.A.Wood for the three dark regions between Mare Crisium and Mare Marginis) (and indeed, they look very much like a "smiling cat"!).
- Lacus Rook (an unofficial name from D.Caes for the dark region in the northern part of Mare Orientale's Montes Rook, in which a dark halo crater is located, at 10° South/ 96°30' West).
- Harold Hill's Basaltic Lava Areas (a couple of dark spots at 34° South/ 58° West, also called Honey Lake). These dark Basaltic Lava Areas were described and depicted by Harold Hill in his book A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings, pages 156 and 157.
- The dark streak across the floor of Hahn, which was probably called Mare Trans Hahn by J.H.Franz.

Nameless dark spots and regions on the moon's near side (not to be confused with dark-halo craterlets)
- The dark region at de Gasparis - Liebig - Palmieri, near Mare Humorum's southwestern rim (seems to have been called Arabiae paludes by Hevelius).
- The elongated dark region south of Piazzi B and several attached dark regions northwest, west, and southwest of Piazzi C
- The dark spot on the floor of Schluter, once called Mare Hiemis by Franz (Schluter is the crater once named Malvasia by Schroter).
- The tiny dark spot at 2°50' South/ 81°20' West, northeast of Schluter (see LAC 73 in the Clementine Atlas of the Moon).
- The dark spot immediately west of Fourier A (which is more-or-less the centre of the semi-circle shaped arc of dark spots southwest of Mare Humorum).
- The elongated dark spot south of De Gasparis A
- Several dark spots east of Lagrange Y
- The dark lake south of Vitello. It should be noted that, in this lake, near craterlet Vitello R, a small section of an officially unnamed lobate scarp was transformed into a short wrinkle ridge. It's interesting to try to locate the beginning (start) and end (finish) of this lobate scarp! I don't know if I'm the first one who noticed this remarkable feature (?). I would like to know if there's a map of this region, with the pinpoint locations of the entire scarp. - DannyCaes Dec 17, 2015
- The two dark craters near the northern eye of the Smiling Cat (Lacus Risus Felis).
- The dark dish shaped crater northwest of Bartels A.
- The dark spot southwest of Neper D.
- The dark spot west-northwest of Macrobius V.

Nameless dark spots and regions on the moon's far side (not to be confused with dark-halo craterlets)
- The dark spot east-southeast of Aston
- The dark spot west of Buffon K
- The dark spot east of Carver
- Several dark spots between Coblentz and Van Der Waals C
- The dark spot southeast of Dobrovol' skiy M
- Several dark spots south of Eotvos F
- The dark spot north-northwest of Fesenkov S
- The dark spot south-southeast of Focas U (south of the curious dark Mare Pacificus ring at the southern part of Mare Orientale), see http://bit.ly/2waCCEU
- The dark spot east-southeast of Geiger K
- The dark spot southwest of Golitsyn
- Several dark spots south-southeast of Levi Civita F
- The dark region in the (rather pronounced) unnamed crater about halfway between Voskresenskiy and Struve H (this pronounced crater seems to be nameless on the LROC Act-React Quick Map, and it has also no name or letter designation on LAC 37 in the Clementine Atlas of the Moon) (strange).

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