Abingdon Astronomical Society Website

Members' Observations - Mare Crisium

Mare Crisium, imaged on 4 December 1998 at approximately 21:45 UT by Ian Smith. Ian used a 20 cm aperture Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Starlight Xpress MX516 CCD camera at a focal ratio of f/10.

Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises) is not connected to other lunar maria, forming a distinct feature towards the eastern limb of the Moon's near side. Measuring 590 km by 460 km, the longer dimension is in the east-west direction; however, foreshortening of this dimension, as a consequence of the mare's near limb position, can make the north-south dimension appear the longer. One of the deeper maria, Mare Crisium is 4 km below the mean sphere of the Moon.

The large crater to the north (i.e. above in the picture) is Crater Cleomedes, which has a diameter of 126 km.

Back to AAS home page