Herschel

Herschel

Lat: 5.7°S, Long: 2.1°W, Diam: 40 km, Depth: 3.33 km, Rükl: 44, Eratosthenian

Clementine

Images

LPOD Photo Gallery Lunar Orbiter Images Apollo Images
Herschel photographed by Apollo 16's orbital panoramic ITEK-camera: AS16-P-5378 and AS16-P-5383 (to see Herschel, scroll rightward, beyond the central parts of both frames).
Research orbital Apollo 16 photography: Danny Caes

Maps

(LAC zone 77A3) LAC map Geologic map LM map AIC map LTO map

Description

Description: Elger

(IAU Directions) HERSCHEL.--A typical ring-plain, situated just outside the N. border of Ptolemaeus, with a lofty wall rising nearly 10,000 feet above a somewhat dusky floor, which includes a prominent central mountain. Its bright border is clearly terraced both within and without, the terraces on the inner slope of the E. wall being beautifully distinct even under a high light, and on the outer slope are some curious irregular depressions. On the S.S.W. is a large oblong deep crater, close to the rocky margin of Ptolemaeus, and a little beyond the foot of the wall on the N.E. is a smaller and more regular rimmed depression, b, standing near the W. border of the great valley, more than 80 miles long, and in places fully 10 miles wide, which runs from S.S.E. to N.N.W. on the E. side of Herschel, and bears a close resemblance to the well-known Ukert Valley. Herschel d is a large but shallow ring-plain on the W. of Herschel, with a brilliant but smaller crater on the E. of it.

North of Herschel, on a plateau concentric with its outline, stands the large polygonal ring-plain Herschel a, a formation of a very interesting character, with a low broken wall, exhibiting many gaps, and including some craters of a minute class. The largest of these stands on the S.E. wall. Mr. W.H. Maw has detected some of these objects on the N. side, both in connection with the border and beyond it.

Description: Wikipedia

Herschel

Additional Information

• Depth data from Kurt Fisher database
  • Pike, 1976: 3.33 km
  • Westfall, 2000: 3.33 km
  • Viscardy, 1985: 3.77 km
• The central peak is 0.8km tall Sekiguchi, 1972. - fatastronomer fatastronomer
• Not to be confused with C.Herschel and J. Herschel craters
• Satellite crater Herschel C is on the ALPO list of banded craters

Nomenclature

• Named for Sir Frederick William Herschel, FRS KH (November 15, 1738 - August 25, 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer who became famous for discovering the planet Uranus. He also discovered infrared radiation and made many other discoveries in astronomy.
• This name was one of eight names introduced by Lohrmann (Whitaker, p. 119). All of Lohrmann's names were adopted by the three "authorities" cited in Mary Blagg's Collated List, and incorporated into the original IAU nomenclature of Blagg and Müller (1935).

LPOD Articles

Bibliography

Sir William Herschel in the Sourcebook Project (William R. Corliss)

- In Mysterious Universe, a handbook of astronomical anomalies (1979) :
 

• Page 96/99: On the Visibility of the Dark Side of Venus (William Herschel, Report of the British Association, 1873).
• Page 110: Illusions (E.M.Antoniadi, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1897).
• Page 224: Lights on the Moon (C. Stanley Ogilvy, Popular Astronomy, 1949).
• Page 232: TLPs and Solar Activity, and other phenomena (Cicely M. Botley, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1976).
• Page 238: Lunar Luminescence (E.J.Flamm, Nature, 1965).
• Page 379: The Canals of Mars (Walter E. Maunder, Knowledge, 1894).
• Page 487: The White Spot on Saturn (Science, 1933).
• Page 557: Bode's Law and the Missing Planet (M.W.Ovenden, Nature, 1972).

The strange case of both Lieutenant Herschel and his brother A. S. Herschel

Note: this is something to investigate... I wonder if there might be Wikipedia biographies of these two Herschels... Were they perhaps related to William, John, and Caroline Herschel? - DannyCaes Apr 17, 2015
Indeed they were family:
Alexander Stewart Herschel or A. S. Herschel (1836-1907, British astronomer, grandson of William Herschel and son of John Herschel).
Colonel John Herschel the Younger (1837-1921, English military engineer and astronomer, grandson of William Herschel and son of John Herschel).
Note: this John Herschel the Younger could have been (or was certainly not?) the Lieutenant Herschel mentioned on pages 272 and 288 of Mysterious Universe.
Or was it perhaps Sir William James Herschel, 2nd Baronet ? (1833-1917, British officer in India who used fingerprints for identification on contracts).
Anyway, both Lieutenant Herschel and his brother A. S. Herschel are mentioned in:

• Page 272: Dark Objects Crossing the Sun's Disk (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1870).
• Page 288: The Stationary Radiation of Meteors (W.F.Denning, Observatory, 1913).

I must say, it's quite interesting to explore one of the world's most famous astronomical families via Wikipedia! I wonder what kind of possible surprising facts could pop up if I explore the astronomical Struve family... Wish me good luck... - DannyCaes Apr 17, 2015

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