CHAMÄLEON + ONJALA OBSERVATORY – LUNAR ATLAS Segment 05 B back to OVERVIEW HOME CHAMÄLEON

Segment 5 A FF - crater Posidonius, Lava borders in Mare Tranquilitatis, The Apollo 17 region with its pyroclastic deposits and the lunar cones Isis and Osiris. Segment 5 B Gardner megaplateau, Domefield Cauchy west, Jansen and Carrel, Menelaus and Arago Segment 5 C Hyginus, Murchinson, Manilius and Yangel (Sinus Fidei) Segment 5 D Aristillus, Autolycus, Rima Hadley (Apollo 15), Palus Putredinus, Valentine Dome

Moon age 5.5 - 6.5 days - Illumination 25 - 35 % Gardner megadome, Apollo 17 Domefield Cauchy NEW 2016 Jansen, Carrel and Vitruvius Domefield Arago/Lamont Menelaus domes Moon age 7.1 - 7.8 days - Illumination 40 - 49.5 % Domefield Arago/Lamont Menelaus domes NEW 2016 Bisected Menelaus Dome Moon age 18.9 days - Illumination 72 % (waning Moon) Gardner medadome + Apollo 17 Domefield Cauchy

Gardner megadome - Apollo 17 - Moon age 5.5 days (25 %) The area around the 19 km wide crater Gardner is classified as a putative megadome plateau in the literature. It has a diameter of about 80 kilometers, making it the largest of these plateaus on the front side of the Moon. To the west there are the Taurus-Littrow mountains (landing site of Apollo 17) with the large-scale pyroclastic deposits. The area in the south and southwest include the large dome fields around the crater Jansen and Cauchy. Directly to the south, at the foothills of the Gardner plateau, the first flat Cauchy domes become visible. The Jansen region is still at dawn and the crater Jansen itself seems to be located on a plateau.

Cauchy domefield - Moon age 5.5 days (25 %) The Cauchy ddmefield is besides the domefields in Hortenius and Milichius (near Copernicus, see Section 8 C) one of the largest on the front of the moon. The Cauchy domes are classiefied as effusive and have diameters from 6 to 17 km and heights of 45-270 meters. The most famous are certainly Cauchy Tau and Cauchy Omega. Many of the Cauchy domes have summit calderas. Due to the low height, e.g., Cauchy 5 = 100 Meter, an successful observation needs the right illumination conditions of about 20 to 30%)

Interesting in this region are also Rupes- and Rima Cauchy. One of it is a mountainside the other a linear rille and both are nearly parallel to each other. Following their general direction to the northwest one arrives pretty much in the middle of the large Imbrium basin. Also interesting is that the Cauchy Dome is also roughly oriented in this direction. It is unclear if this is coincidence or not.

Carell - Moon age 5.5 days (25 %) Directly southeast of the crater Carrel is another effusive dome with a diameter of 8.6 kilometers and a height of only 45 meters (in our image not visible).

NEW 2016 Carrel, Cauchy and Vitruvius - Moonage 5.8 days (29 %) Not a very good image but there is a hint of the Dome Car 1 with a diameter of 8.6 kilometers and a height of at only 45 meters. Furthermore, some of the Cauchy Dome are visible. The Vitruvius dome Vi 1 to Vi 6 with a diameter of 5 to 7.5 kilometers and heights between 50 to 130 meters are also marked in this image. Like most of the Cauchy domes the Vitruvius dome are radially oriented to the Imbrium basin.

Gardner megadome - Apollo 17 Moon age 6.1 days (30 %) At a lunar age of 6.1 days the Gardner Plateau is still visible and the sun is rising above the landing site of Apollo 17. The Region Jansen also left shadow of the Moon.

Cauchy domefield - Moon age 6.1 days (30 %) In these illumination conditions many of the Cauchy domes are no longer visible. Only the highest are still visible due to their shadows.

Jansen domefield - Moon age 6.1 days (30 %) The domes around the crater Jansen (23 km) are still associated with the Cauchy domefield. Just south of Jansen is a short sinusoidal rille - Rima Jansen. The rillee ends at a completely flooded crater. With this illumination the dome Arago alpha becomes visible on th etop of the image. It is certainly one of the most spectacular lunar domes. The domes Vi 2, 3 and 5 are assigned to the crater Vitruvius.

Arago dome - Moon age 6.1 days (30 %) The two large domes Arago Alpha and Beta are located in the north and west of the crater Arago (26 km). Both are "show pieces" for the Celestron 14 because it clearly shows details in the slopes of the domes. They have diameters of 25.5 (Alpha) and 23.5 kilometers (Beta) and heights of 330 and 270 meters. They are effusive domes that arose from several successive lava flows. West of Arago is a poorly understood lunar structure - Lamont. Is it a completely flooded crater or a small basin? The only certainty is that the center of Lamont is a MASCON - a mass anomaly.

The other Arago domes are also classified as effusive and have diameters between 5.5 and 11 kilometers. They are extremely low with heights between 45 and 50 meters.

Menelaus domes - Moon age 6.5 days (35 %) Directly in the north of the crater Menelaus (27 km) are two effusive domes, Men 1 and 2 which are difficult to observe. They are classified as C2 domes and divided by the Rima Menelaus. So they belong to the bisected domes. The eastern dome (Men 2) has a diameter of 14.4 kilometers and is 110 meters high. The western dome (Men 1) has a diameter of 12.6 kilometers but reaches a height of 180 meters.

NEW 2016 Menelaus Dome - Moonage 7.8 days (49.5 %) At an illumination of 49.5 % ( Moon age 7.8 days ) the flat dome Menelaus 2 is practically invisible, Menelaus 1 is just detectable.

Moon age 7.1 days - Illumination 40 %

Arago domes - Moon age 7.1 days (40 %) At a lunar age of 7.1 days, the two great Arago domes (Alpha, Beta) are nearly unvisible. Compare with the upper image just 24 hours earlier.

Menelaus domes - Moon age 7.5 days (45 %) Men 1 and Men 2 at an illumination of 45%. Men 2 ist nearly unvisible. To the west, around Rimae Sulpicius Gallus there is a large area with pyroclastic deposits.

Moon age 18.9 days - Illumination 72 % - waning Moon

Overview Cauchy - Gardner - Jansen - Moon age 18.9 days (72 %) Mosaic of the region around Cauchy, Gardner and Jansen at waning Moon.

Gardner megadome - Moon age 18.9 days (72 %) When the Gardner Dome was once a mega volcano, the marked structure in our image could have been the large caldera.

Apollo 17 - Moon age 18.9 days (72 %) The Gardner megaplateau and Apollo 17 landing site at waning Moon. top of the page

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All Images - otherwise marked - and all Content are © by Franz Hofmann + Wolfgang Paech