IAU Transactions XIVB

TRANSACTIONS OF THE IAU : VOLUME XIVB
(the following is excerpted from the book published by D. Reidel, 1971)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY (BRIGHTON, 1970)

Edited by
C. DE JAGER, General Secretary of the Union
A. JAPPEL, Executive Secretary

from p. 63

RESOLUTlON NO. 8

Proposed by IAU Commission No. 17

On the names of craters on the far side of the Moon

The International Astronomical Union accepts the approximately 500 names proposed by IAU Commission No. 17 on the Moon for designating the craters on the far side of the Moon.

from p. 138

COMMISSION 17: THE MOON (LA LUNE)

Reports of Meetings, 20, 24, 25 and 26 August 1970

PRESIDENT : A. Dollfus.
SECRETARY: J. O'Keefe.

First Session: Business Meeting

The first meeting was held in the large Chemistry Theater of Sussex University, Falmer. It was called to order at 14:15 with the President, A. Dollfus in the chair.

Dollfus announced the death of A. I. Lebedinsky, Vice-President of the Commission, and of J. H. Focas. He appointed a secretary for the session: Dr J. O'Keefe.

Professor Milhnan was invited to inform about the special session scheduled about the Moon at the Montreal Colloquium (Canada) on 22-29 August 1972. IAU is co-organizer.

Then, Dollfus reported on the enormous increase of complexity in the work of the Commission over the past 3 years as the programmes of lunar study and exploration have been realized. To cope with this problem, it was decided, as a result of extensive correspondence and discussions with members, to organize 3 working groups:

(a) Lunar nomenclature: D. H. Menzel (Chairman), M. Minnaert, B. H. Levin and A. Dollfus (ex officio).

(b) Figure and Motion of the Moon: Chairman Th. Weimer. This group has been working since 1968; it has recently had new members added, mostly interested in lasers.

(c) Geology and Geophysics of the Moon: Chairman G. Fielder. This group is under organization.

The President then asked for comments and advices about this organization of the Commission in three Working Groups. Discussion dealt with the question of putting a laser group in with Figure and Motion. B. Levin and J. O'Keefe commented that the mathematical skills of the senior men interested in Figure and Motion were essential to getting scientific information out of the laser data.

Dollfus then noted that in our times the lunar problems have come to interest unions other than IAU, notably IGGU, URSI, IUGS, IAVCEI, IUCSTP and COSPAR. President Heckmann, visiting the meeting, introduced the General Secretary Perek. Perek noted that consideration is being given to forming an International Council on the Moon, under ICSU. For Dollfus, such a commission would have one member from each Union; its goal should be coordination; the work in the several fields should be done by the Unions themselves. The International Committee on the Moon could presumably meet at the time of the meetings of the Unions involved.

Dollfus raised the question whether NASA or Akademiya Nauk of USSR would be represented, since they are significant contributors to the new technologies. Perek replied that only International Unions would be represented on the lunar commissions.
Returning to the organization of Commission 17, Dollfus then put forward names of a new president, 2 vice-presidents and the organizing committee.

The proposal was unanimously adopted.

Several members were of the opinion that a petrologist should be added. The question of adding Anders to the list was put forward and carefully considered. Levin pointed out that we must ask Anders. Dollfus remarked that it might be possible to give the composition of the Committee to the General Secretary only on the 25th after the 3rd session of the Committee; Perek remarked, in reply to a question, that new members can be added to the Organizing Committee between Assemblies if this is found suitable.

from p. 139

Second Session: Working Group 1: `Lunar Nomenclature'

The session opened at 16:07 in the same room with the President, A. Dollfus, in the Chair. A telegram was prepared to Professor Minnaert as follows: `Professeur Minnaert: Commission 17 vous a confié sa présidence, vous exprime ses chaleureuses félicitations, et souhaite votre prompt rétablissement'. The telegram being approved, Dollfus turned the meeting over to Menzel, chairman of Working Group I, who presented the proposed scheme of nomenclature for the far side of the Moon. The proposals are following the principles of guidelines previously adopted by IAU. Names, biographies and coordinates have been established. Six living Soviet cosmonauts and six living U.S. astronauts are exceptionally included. Lists of names are provided, and ACIC prepared maps at the 1: 10000000 scale allocating the proposed names. These documents are distributed. They will be complemented by a guide to the pronunciation of the names. Minnaert is working on this problem; it must necessarily be approximate because of the many sounds involved in all the languages. There are to be phonetic transcriptions into French and English.

Moore moved acceptance for the general spirit of the report; motion seconded. A 'resolution' will be proposed for adoption by the full IAU General Assembly.

Improvements on details were then proposed. Arthur objected that the name Sven Hedin had been assigned to a crater on the back side, but for some years, work of the British Astronomical Association had referred to a crater Hedin on the front; there will be confusion in the literature. Menzel pointed out that the designation Hedin was not in IAU Official Blagg and Mueller list.

Koziel remarked that the name Banachiewicz had been moved, also Lamark, Riemann, Rayleigh and some others. There were names given from photographs taken of the Moon's limb; when more nearly vertical photos became available, it appeared that they represented rather poorly-defined craters.

Arthur then objected to naming one crater inside another. In particular, where letters are added, it will be difficult to decide whether these should be after the inner or the outer crater. In particular, he pointed out Krylov and Ingalls inside Korolev. A similar case with Apollo and with Das which is inside Galois.

O'Keefe pointed out that most of these problems involve the large farside craters of dimensions as large as front side maria, for which the Soviets had proposed the name thalassoids. He pointed out that front-side maria do not control the assignment of letters to craters.

Arthur then proposed that the names of these large craters be designated by parentheses in the lists, as a guide to cartographers, but not to letter smaller craters after them.
Whitford asked that the biographical list include another Russell beside H. N. Russell; Menzel accepted.

The report of the Committee on nomenclature as amended was then unanimously accepted.

Menzel then remarked that the Soviets have suggested that crater chains be named after Institutes, these being designated by their initials; for example, the rocket research institute, RNEE. The Working Group remarked that there was not enough data to make a decision; and that it should be referred to a new committee for the interim period.

Menzel then asked whether there should be a pronunciation guide. Markowitz felt that it would be useless; the sense of the meeting was, however, that the pronunciation guide should be prepared.

The session of Working Group I on `Nomenclature' is adjourned.

Then, the President. A. Dollfus, announced that an additional working session is scheduled at 19:45, in the same room, about the problem of coordination in Laser studies. Attendance is for IAU Members, or others, directly interested in the Laser problems.

from p. 142

Third Session: Working Group 2`Figure et mouvements de la Lune'

A. Dollfus announced that the papers on laser results would be postponed to the 26th. He then turned the chair over to Menzel, for additional comments about the lunar nomenclature.

Menzel announced that Working Group 1, Lunar Nomenclature, had now completed some minor revisions resulting from the discussion on August 20. The craters Pingré, Krylov, Ingalls, Bobone, Tereshkova, Hagen, Chappel, and Das had been relocated; most of these changes removed craters from the interior of other craters. It is believed that the latter problem is now solved, so that there is no need for the proposed use of parentheses to designate very large craters to prevent their use to sub-letter the small nearby craters.

Menzel stated that three small maria near Mare Orientale had been renamed as 'Lacus', namely Lacus Veris, Lacus Aestatis and Lacus Autumnae.

A number of mountain ranges are found not to be clearly identifiable and are removed: Montes Doerfel, D'Alembert, Leibnitz, Hercynii, Sovieticii.

C. de Jager has agreed to print the revised list in Space Science Reviews.

The revised list was unanimously adopted by voice vote.

Dollfus then presented for the full Commission a report on the laser working session discussions reported above.

He then proposed for approval the above-reported resolution. Resolution adopted.

---

(from page 293)

Membership of Commissions

17. Commission de la Lune. (The Moon)

PRÉSIDENT (par intérim): A. Dollfus.

VICE-PRÉSIDENTS: G. P. Kuiper, B. J. Levin.

COMITÉ d'ORGANISATION: E. Anders, G. Fielder, D. H. Menzel, P. M. Millman, T. Weimer.

MEMBRES: Arthur D. W. G., Ashbrook J., Baldwin R., Bell (Miss) B., Boneff N., Brunk W. E., Cameron (Mrs) W., Drofa V. K., Dzapiashvili V. P., Eckert W. J., Elston W. E., Ezerskij V. L, Gavrilov I. V., Gold T., Green J., Guest J. E., Habibullin S. T., Hall R. G., Hirose H., Hopmann J., Jeffreys H., Kopal Z., Koziel K., Link F., Lipskij Y. N., Markowitz Wm., Martynov D. Ya., Middlehurst (Miss) B. M., Mikhailov A. A., Miyamoto S., Morrison L. V., Moutsoulas M., Nefed'ev A. A., O'Keefe J. A., Pettengill G. H., Potter H. I., Rösch J., Runcorn S., Sadler (Mrs McBaín) F. M., Sagan C., Sato Y., Shapiro I. I., Shoemaker E., Sinton W. M., Sonett Ch. P., Strom R. G., Troitskij V. S., Urey H. C., van Flandern T. C., Watts C. B., Whipple F. L., Whitaker E. A., Wildey R L.

---