Flamsteed (crater)

Flamsteed
Lunar Orbiter 4 image
Coordinates4°30′S 44°18′W / 4.5°S 44.3°W / -4.5; -44.3
Diameter21 km
Depth2.2 km
Colongitude44° at sunrise
EponymJohn Flamsteed
Selenochromatic Image (Si) of the crater area(crater at the top)
Oblique view from Apollo 12

Flamsteed is a small lunar impact crater located on the Oceanus Procellarum, which is named after British astronomer John Flamsteed.[1] It lies almost due east of the dark-hued Grimaldi, and north-northwest of the flooded Letronne bay on the south edge of the mare.

Flamsteed P (ring of hills), from Lunar Orbiter 4
Oblique view of Flamsteed P, facing southwest. From Lunar Orbiter 3.

The rim of this crater is not circular in form, having a bulging rim to the southeast. The interior is relatively flat and undistinguished by impacts. The crater lies within the southern rim of a crater that has been almost completely submerged by the basaltic lava flows that formed the Oceanus Procellarum. All that remains of this feature designated Flamsteed P are some low ridges and hills arranged in a circular formation.

Flamsteed is a crater of Eratosthenian age.[2]

The Surveyor 1 craft landed within the northeast rim of the buried Flamsteed P feature, about 50 kilometers north-northeast of the Flamsteed crater rim.

  1. ^ "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature | Flamsteed". usgs.gov. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  2. ^ The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. By Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 12.2.