is circular in shape and bounded by an intricately terraced rim wall. The crater is 2km deep and has a complex floor covered in hills and cracks.<\/span><\/p>\nA lot of its anguished appearance is believed to have come from volcanism. The delicate series of cracks that crisscross its floor are known as <\/span>Rimae Atlas<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\nTwo dark patches referred to as <\/span>Atlas North<\/span> and <\/span>Atlas South <\/span>are very obvious when the crater is lit from overhead.<\/span><\/p>\n ![\""An\"]( "\\"\"An\\"")
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An annotated image showing the region around the Atlas and Hercules Craters. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n\nThese are pyroclastic patches, the result of \u2018fire fountains\u2019 spouting molten material from below the crater\u2019s floor. <\/span><\/p>\nThe rest of the floor is relatively light in appearance. The rilles that form Rimae Atlas almost appear to spread, like a branching river, north from pyroclastic Atlas South.<\/span><\/p>\nFurther evidence of volcanism can be seen from several dark, haloed craters spread across Atlas\u2019s floor \u2013 these are craters surrounded by smaller pyroclastic flow.<\/span><\/p>\nThere are few craterlets visible on Atlas\u2019s floor through amateur telescopes, the most obvious being a 4.4km example near the northern rim.<\/span><\/p>\nHercules Crater<\/strong><\/h1>\nAfter looking at Atlas, it\u2019s quite amazing how different nearby <\/span>Hercules<\/span> appears. Rim to rim, Hercules lies just 30km to the west of Atlas.<\/span><\/p>\nThis is another circular crater which, like Atlas, appears to us as an ellipse as a result of foreshortening.<\/span><\/p>\nHercules also has a terraced rim but unlike the cracked floor inside Atlas, the floor of Hercules appears absolutely smooth apart from a few rounded hills.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a notable intruder to Hercules\u2019s floor in the form of 13km <\/span>Hercules G<\/span>. This sits squarely within the southern half of Hercules but, despite its size, doesn\u2019t cause much other disruption.<\/span><\/p>\n ![\""Moon\"]( "\\"\"Moon_Endymion_002\"\\"")
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The region around the Atlas and Hercules craters, by Ronald Piacenti Junior, Norma Observatory, Brasilia-DF, Brazil. Equipment: Orion StarMax 90mm, Skywatcher All View Mount, Expanse ASI 120 MC (CMOS).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe southwest rim is interrupted by 9km <\/span>Hercules E<\/span>. Hercules is younger than Atlas at somewhere between 1.1 and 3.2 billion years. <\/span><\/p>\nLocated north of Atlas and east of Hercules is the 58km ghost crater, <\/span>Atlas E<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\nThe rim of this feature is very badly eroded and best seen when the lighting is oblique.<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s most prominent to the east and north, but hardly resembles what you\u2019d describe as a classic crater.<\/span><\/p>\nAtlas appears to overlap the southern rim of Atlas E, so Atlas E is obviously older than Atlas. <\/span><\/p>\nA particularly lovely, albeit small feature can be seen 85km to the east of the southern edge of Atlas\u2019s rim. <\/span>Here you\u2019ll find a tiny 2.5km ray crater.<\/span><\/p>\nThis is obviously a relatively young impact because its rays are bright and well defined, fanning out in delicate streaks mostly towards the east.<\/span><\/p>\nA couple of rays can be seen creeping over the boundary edge of <\/span>Lacus Temporis<\/span>, the Lake of Time. To the south of this unnamed ray crater is bowl-shaped 22km <\/span>Atlas A<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Wednesday, 04 August 2021 at 12:00 am Crater Atlas is a distinctive feature of the Moon\u2019s northeast quadrant. Located next door to 70km Hercules, it makes a contrast to its neighbour through a telescope because of their marked differences. In this guide we\u2019ll take a look at both craters, revealing what […]<\/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 Crater Atlas is a distinctive feature of the Moon\u2019s northeast quadrant. Located next door to 70km Hercules, it makes a contrast to its neighbour through a telescope because of their marked differences. In this guide we\u2019ll take a look at both craters, revealing what…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21533"}],"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=21533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\""Atlas\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/02\/ATLAS_HERCULES-e8636ae.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C328"\" "\\"\"Moon_Atlas_001\"\\"")
<\/div>![\""An\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/08\/Atlas-Hercules-Moon-craters-0b6dd54.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C415"\" "\\"\"An\\"")
<\/div>![\""Moon\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/02\/lua_22_42_04Z_g3_b3_ap51_G-a23105d.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C473"\" "\\"\"Moon_Endymion_002\"\\"")
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