Mare Smythii

Smythii Basin

(unofficial name; IAU name for central 373 km of mare: Mare Smythii)

Lat: 1.3°N, Long: 87.5°E, Main ring diam: 740 km, Basin depth: 5.0 km, [/R%C3%BCkl%2038 Rükl: 38]

Left: Peter Lloyd Mare Smythii is the feature seen foreshortened at the limb, Right: Clementine, Clementine LIDAR Altimeter texture from PDS Map-a-Planet remapped to north-up aerial view by LTVT. The dot is the center position and the white circle the main ring position from Chuck Wood's Impact Basin Database. Grid spacing = 10°.

Table of Contents

[#Smythii Basin Smythii Basin]

[#Smythii Basin-Images Images]

[#Smythii Basin-Maps Maps]

[#Smythii Basin-Basin Classification Basin Classification]

[#Smythii Basin-Description: Wikipedia Description: Wikipedia]

[#Smythii Basin-Additional Information Additional Information]

[#Smythii Basin-Nomenclature Nomenclature]

[#Smythii Basin-LPOD Articles LPOD Articles]

[#Smythii Basin-APOD articles APOD articles]

[#Smythii Basin-Lunar 100 Lunar 100]

[#Smythii Basin-Bibliography Bibliography]

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images

• Apollo 15 view
• At the start of [/Lunar%20Orbiter%201%20-%20catalog%20of%20photographed%20features Lunar Orbiter 1's photos] is an interesting series of orbital close ups of Mare Smythii. Research: Danny Caes.
• Orbital Apollo photographs of the bright star-shaped high albedo craterlet at Mare Smythii's northern rim:
  • Coordinates: 4° North/ 88° 55' East (see also LAC 63 (page 126) in the [/Clementine%20Atlas Clementine Atlas])
  • AS10-33-4886
  • AS10-34-5081 (color photograph, the bright craterlet's location is near the frame's left margin)
  • AS11-42-6295 (vertical close up)
  • AS11-42-6296 (vertical close up, a bit brighter than 6295)
  • AS11-43-6452 (vertical close up)
  • AS15-P-9108 (scroll toward the bright craterlet's location a little bit beyond the centre of this horizontal bar-shaped photograph)
  • AS17-P-2573
  • AS17-P-2578
  • AS17-P-2580
    Research: Danny Caes

Maps

([/LAC%20zone LAC zone] 63C3) LTO map

[/Lunar%20Basins Basin Classification]

(description of terms and most numeric basin data from Wood, C.A. (2004) Impact Basin Database)
 

Certainty of Existence	USGS Age	Wilhelms Age Group	Ring Diameters	Mare Thickness	Mascon
Probable	Pre=Nectarian	5	260, 370, 540, 740, 1130 km	1.2-1.3 km	Yes; +43 mG gravity anomaly

Description: Wikipedia

Mare Smythii

Additional Information

• Depth data from [/Kurt%20Fisher%20crater%20depths Kurt Fisher database]
  • Pike, 1976: 3.5 km
• Mare area of 51,950 km^2 according to measurements by Jim Whitford-Stark.

Nomenclature

• The IAU feature name honors William Henry Smyth (January 21, 1788 – September 9, 1865), a British astronomer. In 1825 he retired from the Navy to establish a private observatory in Bedford, England, equipped with a 5.9-inch refractor telescope. He used this instrument to observe a variety of deep sky objects over the course of the 1830s, including double stars, star clusters and nebulae. His notes on 1,604 double stars and nebulae resulted in a two volume book which became a standard reference and a model for the many amateur observing guides that follwed. No astronomer had previously made as extensive a catalogue of dim objects such as this. Subsequent to its publication Smyth was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and served for two years as its President.
• The impact basin is named after the mare.
• The area containing the mare was originally named [/K%C3%A4stner Kästner] by [/Johann%20Schr%C3%B6ter Johann Schröter], but [/Beer%20and%20M%C3%A4dler Beer and Mädler] reportedly constrained that name to the crater that currently bears the name.
• British amateur [/Lee John Lee] recommended renaming Schröter's original feature Mare Smythii on pages 7-9 of the Notes Section of the Report of the 1863 Meeting of the [/British%20Association British Association]. This recommendation was adopted in [/Neison%2C%201876 Neison, 1876].
  • Lee notes that "the name of [/K%C3%A4stner Kästner] is but little known in this country, and is of mere local interest, while the name of "Smyth," as the Rev. T. W. Webb remarks, "is not merely of English but of universal celebrity." It is therefore proposed to retain the name "[/K%C3%A4stner Kästner]" for the smaller and more ancient formation, and to commemorate the rediscovery by designating the larger and more modern plain by the name of the gallant admiral who has contributed so largely, not only to the advancement of astronomy, but also to the pleasure of every practical astronomer, by the publication of his most interesting '(Celestial) Cycle.'"
  • According to [/Ashbrook%2C%201984 Ashbrook, 1984] (page 52) Smyth was a personal friend of Lee, to whom he eventually sold his refractor. In the same British Association report where Mare Smythii is named, Lee named the crater [/Piazzi%20Smyth Piazzi Smyth] in honor of Smyth's son Charles.
• The present feature was Catalog number 4779 (the very last entry) in Mary Blagg's [/Collated%20List Collated List], where it is said that Neison used this name, but [/Julius%20Schmidt Julius Schmidt] called it [/K%C3%A4stner Kästner] and [/Beer%20and%20M%C3%A4dler Beer and Mädler] did not use it.
• In [/Named%20Lunar%20Formations Named Lunar Formations] the naming of Catalog number 4779 as Mare Smythii is erroneously attributed to Mädler (the name is not used in that book).

• Primary named formations on the dark floor of Mare Smythii (the bold/Italics names (non-IAU) are those which were printed on the Lunar Topographic Ortophotomaps)
  • [/Avery Avery]
  • Camoens (SSE of [/Schubert Schubert] C)
  • [/Dorsa%20Dana Dorsa Dana]
  • [/Dorsum%20Cloos Dorsum Cloos]
  • [/Haldane Haldane]
  • [/Helmert Helmert]
  • [/Hume Hume]
  • Hume Z (Li Po)
  • [/Kao Kao]
  • [/Kiess Kiess] (together with nearby Widmannstatten these were the Wright Brothers during the heydays of the Apollo program).
  • [/Lebesgue Lebesgue]
  • [/Peek Peek]
  • Pirandello (east of [/Peek Peek])
  • Purkyne S (Milton)
  • Purkyne U (Tasso)
  • Purkyne V (Hugo)
  • [/Runge Runge]
  • [/Schubert Schubert] C (Doyle)
  • [/Slocum Slocum]
  • [/Swasey Swasey]
  • [/Talbot Talbot]
  • [/Tucker Tucker]
  • [/Warner Warner]
  • [/Widmannst%C3%A4tten Widmannstatten] (together with nearby Kiess these were the Wright Brothers during the heydays of the Apollo program).

LPOD Articles

Keeping Up With The Smythiis
Deep, Young and Ashy
New Perspective, Old Image
A Young, Deep Mare
[/LPOD%20Feb%2025%2C%202008 Out on a limb]
What's New?

APOD articles

The Eagle Rises (Anaglyph of Apollo 11's LM -Eagle- (Ascent Stage) and Mare Smythii)

Lunar 100

[/Lunar%20100 L73]: Difficult-to-observe basin scarp & mare.

Bibliography

• APOLLO OVER THE MOON; A VIEW FROM ORBIT, Chapter 2: Regional views, Figure 22.
• Hill, Harold. [/A%20Portfolio%20of%20Lunar%20Drawings A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings], pages 34-36.
• [/Lee Lee], J. 1864. "On the Lunar "Mare Smythii," the walled Plain "Rosse," the "Percy Mountains," and the newly named Craters, "Phillips," "Wrottesley," "Chevallier," and "Piazzi Smyth." Report of the [/British%20Association British Association] for the Advancement of Science 1863 Meeting. Notices Section (at end), pp. 7-9 (the name is also used in on p. 4, in an earlier article by W. R. [/Birt Birt]).

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This page has been edited 1 times. The last modification was made by - tychocrater tychocrater on Jun 13, 2009 3:24 pm - afx3u2