Move your mouse over the picture to see the names of the various features.
If we exclude the multi-ring impact basins, Hipparchus is one of the largest craters on the near side of the Moon. It is 155 Km in diameter, only a little smaller than nearby Ptolemaeus. It is also very ancient dating back at least 3,900 million years which puts it in the earliest era of crater formation. In consequence it has been battered by later impacts. It has deep scars across its south-eastern wall, and another crosses the western edge of Halley, which are radial to Imbrium and almost certainly caused by the ejecta from the formation of the Imbrium basin 3,900 million years ago.
The scale marks indicate approximately 100 Km north and west.
The picture was taken using my LX200 on 31st August 2010 at 04:38 UT when the Moon was 20.7 days old.
Lunar Phase: 288.3°
Colongitude: 168.3°
Date and Time: 31st August 2010 04:38 UT
Camera: DMK 21AF04 with IR-pass filter
Telescope: LX200
Capture: ICCapture. 1/108", gain 716, 3335 frames
Processing: Registax. 102 frames stacked. Wavelets 1=10, 2=5, gamma 1.5
Focus Magic 2,100 Home Back to SW Quadrant