Harkhebi Crater Honors Early Ptolemaic Astronomer Prince Harkhebi

Summary: The lunar far side’s Harkhebi Crater honors early Ptolemaic astronomer Prince Harkhebi, who is known via an inscribed statue discovered in 1906.

Detail of oblique, northward view, obtained 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 5, shows Harkhebi Crater (center) encircling superimposed Fabry Crater (center right), with western rim grazer Vashakidze Crater (upper right); NASA ID Frame 5181: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

The lunar far side’s Harkhebi Crater honors early Ptolemaic astronomer Prince Harkhebi, whose achievements as an observational astronomer are recorded on an inscribed statue dated to the third century BCE and discovered in 1906.

Harkhebi Crater occupies the lunar far side’s northwestern quadrant, beyond the near side’s northeastern limb. Impacts have extensively eroded and worn Harkhebi’s outer rim. Craterlets dot the crater’s rough, uneven interior floor.

Harkhebi is centered at 40.87 degrees north latitude, 98.74 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The northern hemisphere crater’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 46.36 degrees north and 35.34 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 104.6 degrees east and 92.94 degrees east, respectively. Harkhebi’s diameter spans 337.14 kilometers.

Harkhebi parents six satellites, all of which respect their parent’s boundaries. Satellites H, T, U and W are strewn across their parent’s interior floor. Satellites J and K are located on their parent’s southeastern rim.

Harkhebi’s north-northeastern half hides under superimposed Fabry Crater. The impact-notched crater is centered at 43.07 degrees north latitude, 100.68 degrees east longitude. It records northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 46.03 degrees north and 40.11 degrees north, respectively. It registers easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 104.73 degrees east and 96.64 degrees east, respectively. Fabry’s diameter measures 179.44 kilometers.

Vashakidze Crater’s southeastern rim brushes against Harkhebi’s northwestern rim. The well-defined crater is centered at 43.65 degrees north latitude, 93.01 degrees east longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 44.4 degrees north and 42.91 degrees north, respectively. Vashakidze obtains easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 94.04 degrees east and 91.99 degrees east, respectively. Vashakidze Crater has a diameter of 44.99 kilometers.

The Harkhebi Crater system lies to the southeast of Mare Humboldtianum (Humboldt Sea). The limb-straddling lunar mare is centered at 56.92 degrees north latitude, 81.54 degrees east longitude. The middle-latitude dark basaltic plain invades the moon’s north polar region with its northernmost latitude posting of 60.02 degrees north. Its southernmost latitude touches 53.65 degrees north. Humboldt Sea’s easternmost and westernmost longitudes are found at 88.49 degrees east and 74.75 degrees east, respectively. Mare Humboldtianum’s diameter measures 230.78 kilometers.

Harkhebi Crater honors early Ptolemaic astronomer Prince Harkhebi. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Harkhebi as the crater’s official name in 1979, during the organization’s XVIIth (17th) General Assembly, held in Montreal, Canada, from Tuesday, Aug. 14, to Thursday, Aug. 23. Prior to its formal naming, Harkhebi Crater was designated as Basin I.

Prince Harkhebi is known through his inscribed, third century BCE statue. Egypt’s first Egyptologist, Ahmed Kamal (July 29, 1849-Aug. 5, 1923), reported the 1906 finding of the basalt statue in the seventh volume of Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte. The owner of a farm in the northeastern Egyptian village of Faqous discovered the statue on his property, adjacent to the Northeastern Nile Delta archaeological site of Tell Faraoun, also known as Tell Nebesha or Tell Nebesheh (“Il a quelques mois, un notable de Faqous trouva dans sa ferme, adjacente à Tell Faraoun, une statue debout en basalte de 0 m. 65 cent. . . .” page 239).

The statue bore two inscriptions. A short inscription on the statue’s left side comprised two vertical columns. A longer inscription adorned the statue’s back pillar. Comprising three vertical lines, the longer inscription vaunts Harkhebi’s abilities and responsibilities.

Harkhebi’s longer inscription credits the astronomer prince with knowledge of the risings and culminations of every observable star. His talents included understanding and timing the sun’s movements and predicting the heliacal (Ancient Greek ἡλιακός hēliakós, “of the sun”) rising, or star rise, of Sopdet.

Star rise references a star’s annual return to visibility after its obscured position behind the sun, from the perspective of Earth. A star that does not remain above the horizon year-round breaks its absence from the nighttime sky with an appearance before sunrise.

Sopdet was an ancient Egyptian sky goddess who personified the star Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris, α Canis Majoris; Alpha CMa, α CMa). Ancient Egyptians connected the brightest star in the nighttime sky with the annually renewed fertility of land along the Nile River. The heliacal rising of Sirius in summer signaled the Nile’s rising prior to the great river’s annual flooding, according to English Egyptologist Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (July 27, 1857-Nov. 23, 1934) in The Gods of the Egyptians (volume I, page 435), published in 1904.

The takeaways for the lunar far side’s Harkhebi Crater, which honors early Ptolemaic astronomer Prince Harkhebi, are that the large lunar impact crater occupies the far side’s northwestern quadrant, to the southeast of north polar Mare Humboldtianum; that Harkhebi Crater parents six satellites; and that the crater’s namesake is known through a third century BCE inscribed statue enumerating his accomplishments in observational astronomy.

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows lunar far side’s Harkhebi Crater (lower right), with superimposed Fabry Crater (center right) and western rim grazer Vashakidze Crater (center), in the northwestern quadrant: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Detail of oblique, northward view, obtained 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 5, shows Harkhebi Crater (center) encircling superimposed Fabry Crater (center right), with western rim grazer Vashakidze Crater (upper right); NASA ID Frame 5181: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harkhebi_crater_5181_med.jpg

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows lunar far side’s Harkhebi Crater (lower right), with superimposed Fabry Crater (center right) and western rim grazer Vashakidze Crater (center), in the northwestern quadrant: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/moon_farside.pdf

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