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Its location (of Euler gamma) on the moon's near side is 19°30' North / 28°30' West, about, say, a hundred kilometers northwest of the pronounced corner-shaped "appendage" of Montes Carpatus, once known as Promontorium Banat (or rather: Kap Banat), thus named by two pioneers of lunar cartography and nomenclature: Johann Nepomuk Krieger and Rudolf Konig. Now, what is so special about Euler gamma? It is an oblong hill (or island) in the southern section of Mare Imbrium, and there are many more like these in this large "sea of rains", but... this one has a half submerged bowl shaped crater at its southeastern flank. This peculiar phenomenon was noticed by the British master of telescopic moon drawings: Harold Hill (see his book A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings, 1991, pages 52-53: The Euler Group), and was photographed by Lunar Orbiter 4, and also during the mission of Apollo 17 (orbital photography of Targets of opportunity). What I want to know is: how did this feature, this half submerged bowl shaped crater, came to existence. I mean: what came first, the hill and then the crater, or first the crater and then the hill? Did lunar geologists already answered this question? I seem to remember an orbital photograph of Euler gamma in Peter H. Schultz's wonderful book Moon Morphology, but... I browsed through that book too many years ago. Perhaps... dedicated telescopic photographers of the Mare Imbrium region have made series of high resolution images of the Euler region, showing different stages of illumination by the sun (post sunrise morning light, pre noon light, post noon light, pre sunset light). Of course, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter made the most detailed photographs of that half submerged crater, but... it is also always interesting to see telescopic photographs of it! Harold Hill seems to have been unaware of the fact that this formation received the name (or designation) Euler gamma. Page 52 in A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings: - Another feature of interest was the undesignated mountain situated to the southeast of the general assemblage (the Euler group). This appeared to have a half-submerged craterlet on its lower southeast flanks, giving the strong impression that scree or rubble from the mountain has partially covered it. Note by D. Caes: Mr. Hill's observation must have been performed under very tranquil atmosphere! (exceptionally good seeing!). Apollo 17 orbital Hasselblad camera photographs of Euler gamma: - AS17-151-23268 + 23269 (the last two frames of Magazine OO). - AS17-139-21292 + 21291 (Magazine K). Apollo 17 orbital panoramic Itek camera photographs of Euler gamma: - AS17-P-3102 / 3103 / 3104 / 3105 (Revolution 74 Vertical) Apollo 17 orbital mapping-metric Fairchild camera photographs of Euler gamma: - AS17-M-2291 to 2295 (vertical, morning terminator) - AS17-M-2446 to 2451 Euler gamma in NASA's Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report: page 28-28 (Lunar Orbiter photograph). Lunar Orbiter IV photograph of Euler gamma: - LO IV-133-h3 |
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| Perhaps interesting to know: the "Tennis Racquet" shaped crater Euler P, west of the hill Euler gamma, is the largest one of the moon's surface formations which received the name of a girl, this during the post-years (the mid seventies) of NASA's scientific J-missions (Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17). Euler P is also known as Natasha. This whole complex (the Euler group) is also known as the Lothrop hills, including the officially recognized name for the distinct Euler beta: Mons Vinogradov (aka Mons Euler). Now, who or what was Lothrop? (for the name Lothrop hills, see the quite large greenish colored moonmap from Rand Mc Nally). |
