Mons La Hire

Mons La Hire - and Mount Whipple (La Hire Alpha) west-northwest of it

(current IAU name; original IAU name: Lahire)

Lat: 27.8°N, Long: 25.5°W, Diam: 25 km, Height: 1.8 km, Rükl 20, 21st Century Atlas: Chart 21

Apollo 15; AS15-M-2466 This view shows the structure of Mons La Hire with a relatively high sun. It is typically photographed when the sun angle is lower and the peaks cast long shadows onto the surrounding Mare Imbrium.

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images (see also La Hire Alpha Prominence).
Are there a rille and a scarp officially name-related to Mons La Hire? See the LPI's orbital Apollo photos of LA HIRE RILLE and LA HIRE SCARP.

Copernicus's craterlet clusters near Mons La Hire

There's a number of irregularly shaped craterlet clusters in the neighbourhood of Mons La Hire. The origin of most of these clusters is (was) the impact which created crater Copernicus to the south-southeast (each one of these clusters shows its own short "comet's tail", radiating out toward the opposite direction of Copernicus's location). Almost every cluster near Mons La Hire was photographed in close-up during the missions of Apollo 15 and 17. It is a real pleasure to detect all of those clusters on Chart 21 (page 55) in the 21st Century Atlas of the Moon (C.A.Wood/ M.Collins), and in the LPI's online Hasselblad magazines of Apollo 15's orbital photography! - DannyCaes Oct 5, 2013
 
 The LA HIRE C cluster (aka the Chopper)
  The location of this cluster (which has a typical Chopper-like shape!) is west of Mons La Hire and southwest of La Hire Alpha (aka Wilkins's Mount Whipple).
  Its location on Chart 21 of the 21st Century Atlas of the Moon is G4 (slightly to the left of Mons La Hire).
 AS15-92-12452 is perhaps the best one of Apollo 15's close ups of the La Hire C cluster.
 AS15-96-13028 shows the La Hire C cluster early in the local morning (shadows in the craterlets).
  Apollo 17's AS17-155-23729 and 23730 show the La Hire C cluster from a distance.
  Apollo 17's panoramic ITEK-camera frame AS17-P-3101 shows La Hire C near the right margin (scroll all the way to the right).
  Lunar Orbiter 4's frame 133-h3 shows the typical Chopper-like shape of the La Hire C cluster (you can't miss it, it's driving to the right, to the east). One might wonder if this cluster's Chopper shape is also noticeable through telescope.
  Additional research: Danny Caes
 
 

Maps

(LAC zone 40A4) LAC map Geologic map LTO map

Description

Description: Elger

(IAU Directions) LAHIRE.--A large bright isolated mountain in the Mare Imbrium, N.W. of Lambert, in N. lat. 27 deg., W. long. 25 deg. It is, according to Schroter, nearly 5,000 feet high.

Description: Wikipedia

Mons La Hire

Additional Information

• Depth data from Kurt Fisher database
  • Viscardy, 1985: 1.7 km
  • Cherrington, 1969: 0.79 km
• Cherrington's height appears to be in error. LTO-40A4 gives a peak elevation of 7289 m compared to a spot elevation on the mare to the south of 5483 m. This gives 1806 m as a reasonable (but overyly precise) estimate of the peak height. - Jim Mosher

Nomenclature

• Named for Philippe de La Hire (1640-1718), a French mathematician and astronomer who made contributions to calculations of the Moon's orbital motion.
• According to Whitaker (p. 218), this name was introduced by Schröter in the form de la Hire.
• This peak is catalog entry 1396 in the original IAU nomenclature of Blagg and Müller, where it is spelled Lahire and the name is attributed to Mädler.
• The IAU changed the spelling to La Hire in 1961, the name under which it appears on Chart E3 of the System of Lunar CratersQuad Maps.
• This feature is listed as Promontorium La Hire in NASA SP-241.
• It is unclear when it acquired the "Mons" prefix -- the name under which it is listed on LTO-40A4 (1974).
• Wilkins and Moore proposed assigning the name Mount Whipple to the system of hillocks to the west-northwest of Mons La Hire, then known as La Hire Alpha (a former IAU-approved name). The I.A.U. did not accept their proposal, although the name Whipple was later use for a crater near the Moon's north pole.
• Mount Whipple (La Hire Alpha) was probably John Adams Whipple (1822-1891), American inventor and early photographer of the moon (mentioned in the book Epic Moon by Sheehan and Dobbins).- DannyCaes Jun 6, 2014
• AS15-81-10978 is an orbital Hasselblad of the former La Hire Alpha/ Mount Whipple.
• The Chopper is Danny Caes's nickname for the remarkable Chopper shaped cluster of craterlets west of Mons La Hire, officially known as La Hire C.

The so-called Rimae La Hire (Rima La Hire I and Rima La Hire II) between Mons La Hire and Mount Whipple (La Hire Alpha)

See: Rimae La Hire
 
 

LPOD Articles

Bibliography

• APOLLO OVER THE MOON; A VIEW FROM ORBIT, Chapter 4: The Maria (Part 1), Figure 66.
• Harold Hill. A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings, page 51.

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