Mons Piton
Contents
Mons Piton
(current IAU name; former IAU name: Piton)
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Lat: 40.6°N, Long: 1.1°W, Diam: 25 km, Height: 2.25 km, Rükl: 12 |
Mario Weigand Mons Piton is the shadow-casting peak at the center. Below it are 6-km Piton A and 5-km Piton B. The 13-km crater in the upper left corner is Piazzi Smyth and the bright feature in the extreme upper right corner is the Sun striking the western slopes of Promontorium Deville. This view also includes two other formerly-named peaks: Piazzi Smyth Alpha (along the upper margin, just to the left of center) and Piton Gamma (looking like the top of a dog bone in the lower left). Both these names were dropped by the IAU in 1973.
Images
LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images
- Although there seems to be nothing in the LPI's Apollo Images Search for Mons Piton, there ARE orbital Apollo photographs of this peak! For example: Fairchild-Metric image AS15-M-1538 which shows this peak a little "above" (westward) of the curved horizon's centre! (north-northwest of Aristillus). - DannyCaes Jan 13, 2008
Maps
(LAC zone 25B4) LAC map Geologic map
Description
Description: Elger
(IAU Directions) PITON.--A bright isolated mountain 7,000 feet high, in N. lat. 1 deg., W. long. 1 deg.
Note: the strange latitude given here is a faithful transcription of what appears on p. 156 of Elger. Since the meaning of Piton has not changed, "N. lat. 1 deg" appears to be a misprint for "N. lat. 41 deg"
Description: Wikipedia
Additional Information
- Depth data from Kurt Fisher database
- Viscardy, 1985: 2.25 km
- Cherrington, 1969: 2.49 km
Nomenclature
- Named from Mt. Piton on the Tenerife Islands.
- The name Piton, for this feature, was introduced by Lee (1864), as part of his naming of the lunar Teneriffe Mountains, of which he regarded this as a part. Birt seems to have suggested the alternated spelling Petora.
- According to Mary Blagg's Collated List, this feature (catalog #1128) was known as Pico A to Schmidt and Beer and Mädler, and as Piton to Neison.
- The original IAU nomenclature of Named Lunar Formations adopted Neison's name for the peak as a whole, and also his somewhat arbitrary subdivision of it into two separately named parts: Pico Alpha (catalog #1129) for the southern part; and Pico Beta (catalog #1130) for the northern and western parts, which Neison saw as a kind of arm extending out of Pico Alpha. In addition, an isolated peak to the south that been known to all three of Blagg's authorities as Kirch Gamma was re-assigned to Piton and adopted into the IAU nomenclature as Piton Gamma (catalog #1136). - Jim Mosher
- The name was Latinized to Mons Piton in 1961. - Jim Mosher
- The subdivision of Mons Piton into Piton Alpha and Piton Beta seems to have been dropped in the System of Lunar Craters (ca. 1963). - Jim Mosher
- The remaining Greek-lettered peak associated with Mons Piton (Piton Gamma) was discontinued in 1973, along with nearly all other Greek-lettered designations. - Jim Mosher
LPOD Articles
Peaky Piton
40 years later (drawing and photograph of the Piton / Piazzi Smyth region, by Leo Aerts).
Mount Molar (Leo Aerts).
Bibliography
Harold Hill. A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings, pages 62, 63, 64.
