Lacus Autumni

(original IAU name: Mare Autumni; briefly known as Lacus Autumnae?)

Lat: 9.9°S, Long: 83.9°W, Diam: 183 km, Depth: km,Rükl: 39

The IAU name means "Lake of Autumn", a modernized form of Mare Autumni ("Autumn Sea") one of a set of "four seasons" names given by Franz in his Die Randlandschaften des Mondes (1913) to previously unnamed dark patches in this area. The others were Mare Veris (Spring), Mare Aestatis (Summer) and Mare Hiemis (Winter). The relevant section of Franz' map is reproduced as Figure 7 in Baum and Whitaker, 2007 (p. 132).
In 1961 (IAU Transactions XIB) the IAU approved certain changes in the boundary of the feature meant by this name, as introduced in Table III of the Photographic Lunar Atlas (1960). These were said to be necessary to restore it to the feature intended by Franz.
In 1970 (IAU Transactions XIVB), the IAU announced it was changing the name to Mare Autmunae, but by the time the complete list of revisions was published the spelling had reverted to "Lacus Autumni" Menzel, 1971.
Called Lacus Autumnis in Charles J. Byrne's The Far Side of the Moon; a Photographic Guide (Springer, 2008).

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