{"id":21531,"date":"2021-08-04T18:28:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=98829"},"modified":"2021-08-04T18:35:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:35:11","slug":"a-guide-to-the-moons-mare-fecunditatis","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/a-guide-to-the-moons-mare-fecunditatis\/","title":{"rendered":"A guide to the Moon\u2019s Mare Fecunditatis"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 04 August 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Mare Fecunditatis<\/span>, the Sea of Fertility, is one of the main lunar maria<\/a>, or seas. It is a huge, lava-filled impact basin measuring 600x500km, covering 325,000 square kilometres.<\/p>\n

In Earth equivalents, Mare Fecunditatis is not dissimilar in area to the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed inland body of water on our planet.<\/p>\n

The Caspian Sea measures 1,030x435km and covers an area of 371,000 square kilometres.<\/p>\n

For more info on lunar observing, read our guides on how to observe the Moon<\/a> and the best features on the Moon<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\""An\"<\/div>
Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The dark, somewhat diamond-shaped, patch that represents Mare Fecunditatis is visible to the naked eye and easily recognised as it marks the southeast end of a progression of large lunar seas running from Mare Serenitatis, through Mare Tranquillitatis<\/a> and into Fecunditatis.<\/p>\n

It also lies south of the distinctive oval sea known as Mare Crisium.<\/p>\n

Being large, it\u2019s not surprising that there are many interesting features that lie within and border the sea.<\/p>\n

The surface of Fecunditatis is dark with lighter streaks.<\/p>\n

One major source of these streaks is the impressive 133km crater Langrenus<\/span>, which sits on the eastern edge of the mare.<\/p>\n

\""Langrenus\"<\/div>
Langrenus Crater by Fernando Oliveira De Menezes, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Equipment: C11 Edge, Thus 290 mc.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Ejecta rays can be seen crossing a large portion of Fecunditatis, especially under high illumination in the southern part of the mare.<\/p>\n

A distinctive triplet of smaller craters lies to the northwest of Langrenus, on Fecunditatis\u2019s floor. These are 35km Naonobu, 43km Bilharz and 30km Atwood.<\/p>\n

All three are quite similar in appearance, with flat floors.<\/p>\n

The complex eastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis has an irregular bay towards the north. This is the 100km Sinus Successus<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The edge of the mare then becomes more defined as it angles northwest toward 56km Taurantius.<\/p>\n

\""Moon\"<\/div>
The region around Mare Fecunditatus by Ronald Piacenti Junior, Norma Observatory, Brasilia-DF, Brazil. Equipment: Orion StarMax 90 Maksutov, Skywatcher AllView Mount, Expanse ASI 120 MC (CMOS)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The northwestern border is defined by <\/span>Montes Secchi<\/b><\/span>, with the 25km crater Secchi embedded within.<\/span><\/p>\n

It then becomes irregular once more as it heads south towards a region dominated by 75km Gutenberg, 55km Goclenius and 76km Colombo.<\/span><\/p>\n

The western edge is interesting because it contains a number of bow-shaped rilles. These are mostly grabens \u2013 regions of the lunar surface that have dropped between fault lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

They appear to follow the curvature of the edge of Fecunditatis concentrically.<\/span><\/p>\n

\""Tranquil\"<\/div>
Credit: Tom Howard, Crawley, UK. Equipment: Meade 127 refractor, EQ6 mount, Nikon D90, x2 Nikon TeleExtender.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The most prominent are known as <\/span>Rimae Goclenius<\/b><\/span>, with the most impressive example extending northwest from Goclenius. Careful examination will show the graben passing diagonally across its entire width. <\/span><\/p>\n

The southern end of Mare Fecunditatis is less well defined but delineated by the irregular 147km crater Vendelinus<\/b><\/span> to the southeast.<\/p>\n

The 33km crater Petavius B<\/b><\/span> interferes with the mare\u2019s floor, with additional light ray features spreading west from the crater.<\/p>\n

\""Mare\"<\/div>
Mare Fecunditatis Credit: NASA \/ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Two small yet well-known craters situated in the northwest portion of the mare are Messier<\/b><\/span> and Messier A<\/b><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Messier is the smaller of the two at 12x9km. It lies to the east of 13x11km Messier A. While Messier B has a distinctly oval shape, Messier A appears more rounded with a double lip to the west.<\/p>\n

A pair of lighter rays appears to spread out from Messier A towards the western shore of Fecunditatis.<\/p>\n

Under high illumination two further sprays of lighter material can be seen heading north and south of Messier for quite some distance.<\/p>\n

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By Pete Lawrence Published: Wednesday, 04 August 2021 at 12:00 am Mare Fecunditatis, the Sea of Fertility, is one of the main lunar maria, or seas. It is a huge, lava-filled impact basin measuring 600x500km, covering 325,000 square kilometres. In Earth equivalents, Mare Fecunditatis is not dissimilar in area to the Caspian Sea, the largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[34],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Wednesday, 04 August 2021 at 12:00 am Mare Fecunditatis, the Sea of Fertility, is one of the main lunar maria, or seas. It is a huge, lava-filled impact basin measuring 600x500km, covering 325,000 square kilometres. In Earth equivalents, Mare Fecunditatis is not dissimilar in area to the Caspian Sea, the largest…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}