Bowen

Bowen

(formerly Manilius A)

Lat: 17.61°N, Long: 9.1°E, Diam: 8.09 km, Depth: 0.8 km, Rükl: 23

LO-IV-097H Bowen is to the right of center. The 3-km crater in the upper left is Manilius H.
The dark mare-like region southwest of Bowen is Lacus Doloris.

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images
- Shadowless Bowen (Manilius A) and its small "attached" craterlet at the southern part of its rim, as they were captured on one of Apollo 15's orbital panoramic ITEK-camera frames: AS15-P-10169 (the "white" crater with attached "tongue", near the centre of the frame).
- Bowen is also noticeable below and slightly to the left of the central fiducial cross in AS15-92-12544.
Additional research Apollo 15 photography: Danny Caes

Maps

(LAC zone 41C3) LAC map Geologic map LM map LTO map

Description

Wikipedia

Bowen

Additional Information

• IAU page: Bowen
• Depth data from Kurt Fisher database
  • Westfall, 2000: 1.1 km
  • Viscardy, 1985: 0.8 km
• From the shadows in LO-IV-097H, Bowen is 1000-1120 m deep.
• LRO altimetry shows that Bowen's rim is very uneven in elevation, and its floor is tilted also, so that its depth ranges from 600 m to 1000 m, depending on where it is measurer. Based on four measurements, its average depth is about 800 m, and that number is inserted in the summary at the top of this page. Chuck Wood

Two partially reddish-brown colored ray craterlets north-northeast of Bowen (west-southwest of Sulpicius Gallus)

• In the summer of 1971 both of these partially reddish-brown colored ray craterlets were captured on two of Apollo 15's orbital Hasselblad photographs of the Bowen-Sulpicius Gallus region at Montes Haemus. These frames are AS15-93-12684 and 12685 (High-Resolution scans from Kipp Teague's Apollo photogalleries on Flickr).
• In December 1972 they were once again photographed from orbit during the mission of Apollo 17, also on two Hasselblad frames: AS17-152-23284 and 23285 (High-Resolution scans from Kipp Teague's Apollo photogalleries on Flickr).
• The pinpoint coordinates of these two ray craterlets are; The larger (eastern) one: LAT 18.9393/ LON 9.8642, the smaller (western) one: LAT 18.8511/ LON 9.6124. (see the LROC's online ACT-REACT QUICK MAP).
• Research: Danny Caes (- DannyCaes Oct 6, 2015).

Nomenclature

• According to the IAU Planetary Gazetteer, this crater is named for Ira Sprague Bowen (December 21, 1898 - February 6, 1973), an American astronomer. A graduate of Oberlin College and the California Institute of Technology, he taught physics at Caltech from 1921 to 1945. In 1927 he discovered that Nebulium was not really a chemical element but instead doubly ionized oxygen. He served as director of both the Mount Wilson Observatory and the Palomar Observatory, holding the latter position until 1964. Bowen received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's 1957 Bruce Medal and extensive links to information about him can be found there.
• The name Bowen for the present feature appears in the cumulative list of approved names published in IAU Transactions XVB (1973), although neither the honoree or when the name was approved is explicitly mentioned.
• Biographical information was reported in Ashbrook, 1974 where Bowen is mentioned, along with Harlow Shapley, as an example of (at the time of the August 1973 IAU meeting) a "recently deceased astronomer."
• This replacement name for a formerly lettered crater was apparently first used on LTO-41C3 (April 1975, for which it served as the chart title). - Jim Mosher
• The much smaller astronaut-named feature Bowen-Apollo, at the Apollo 17 landing site, may or may not be named for the same person. Bowen (Apollo 17 crater) - "Norman L. Bowen, geologist, performed experiments on the crystallization of silicate liquids that led the way to our present understanding of the origin and evolution of igneous rocks; an understanding which is now a critical element in our interpretations of lunar history." Bowen Crater is near geology Station 8 which Cernan and Schmitt visited on their third EVA (source: APOLLO LUNAR SURFACE JOURNAL, Eric M. Jones).
• See also Edward George Bowen (1911-1991), British physicist and radio astronomer. - DannyCaes Feb 8, 2014

LPOD Articles

Bibliography

• Ira Sprague Bowen in National Geographic:
  • August 1955: Completing the Atlas of the Universe (pages 185-190), included: Sky Survey Plates unlock secrets of the Stars.
  • December 1956: Sky Survey charts the Universe (pages 780-781).

A certain E. G. Bowen is mentioned in the article Meteorites and Planetary Organic Matter by Michael H. Briggs (Observatory, 1962). See page 332 in Mysterious Universe, a handbook of astronomical anomalies (William R. Corliss, The Sourcebook Project, 1979).

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