Zucchius
Contents
Zucchius
Lat: 61.4°S, Long: 50.3°W, Diam: 64 km, Depth: 3.82 km, Rükl: 71, Copernican |
Images
LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images
Maps
(LAC zone 124C3) USGS Digital Atlas PDF
Description
Description: Elger
(IAU Directions) ZUCHIUS.--Is situated on the S.W. of Segner, which it slightly overlaps. It is very similar in size and general character, and has a lofty terraced wall, rising at one place on the E. to nearly 11,000 feet above the floor. A very fine chain of craters, well seen when the opposite border is on the morning terminator, runs round the outer E. slope of the wall. There is a bright crater beyond this on the S.E. Zuchius has a central peak.
Description: Wikipedia
Additional Information
- Depth data from Kurt Fisher database
- Westfall, 2000: 3.82 km
- Viscardy, 1985: 3.3 km
- Cherrington, 1969: 3.2 km
- Central peak composition: GNTA1, GNTA2, AG, G (Tompkins & Pieters, 1999)
- Exterior impact melt deposits most extensive to N & E, max of ~8 km beyond rim; max wall slumping on N side of crater (Hawke and Head, 1977).
- Included in ALPO list of bright ray craters
- A small crater on the south rim crest ejected low albedo material that could be mare basalts from below (LPOD Oct 1, 2009)
Nomenclature
- Named for Niccolo Zucchi (December 6, 1586 - May 21, 1670), a Italian Jesuit astronomer, mathematician and physicist. In 1616, he designed one of the earliest reflecting telescopes. A professor at the Collegio Romano, Zucchi developed an interest in astronomy from a meeting with Johannes Kepler. He invented the concave reflecting telescope, and on May 17, 1630 was the first person to discover two belts on the surface of Jupiter. Zucchi also examined the spots on Mars (1640). His book Optica philosophia experimentalis et ratione a fundamentis constituta (1652–56) inspired James Gregory and Isaac Newton to build improved telescopes.
- According to Whitaker (p. 215), this was one of the original names from Riccioli's map, where it was listed as Zucchius Soc. I (the "Soc. I" standing for "Society of Jesus" -- see the list of Jesuit astronomers).
LPOD Articles
Four in a Row Western Triplet Chasing Cryptomaria
Bibliography
- Harold Hill. A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings, pages 158, 159.