Webb Crater Honors 19th-Century British Astronomer Thomas William Webb

Summary: Webb Crater honors 19th-century British astronomer Thomas William Webb, an Anglican clergyman who wrote Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes.

Detail of Lunar Astronautical Chart (LAC) 80 shows Webb Crater (upper center) in the lunar near side’s southeastern quadrant, lying in the northeastern Mare Fecunditatis and to the west-southwest of Mare Spumans; courtesy NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) / GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) / ASU (Arizona State University): U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Webb Crater honors 19th-century British astronomer Thomas William Webb, an Anglican clergyman whose classic astronomical observing guide, Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, was published in 1859.

Webb Crater is a small lunar impact crater in the lunar near side’s southeastern quadrant. A low hill rises from the crater’s interior midpoint. British selenographer Thomas Gwyn Elger (Oct. 27, 1836-Jan. 9, 1897) described Webb as having “. . . a dusky floor, enclosed by a bright rim . . .” (page 123) in his classic Victorian era guide, The Moon: A Full Description and Map of Its Principal Physical Features, published in 1895.

Webb Crater is centered at minus 0.98 degrees south latitude, 60 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The southern hemisphere crater marks northernmost and southernmost latitudes at minus 0.63 degrees south and minus 1.33 degrees south, respectively. The eastern hemisphere crater obtains easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 60.35 degrees east and 59.65 degrees east, respectively. Webb Crater has a diameter of 21.41 kilometers.

Webb Crater is located in the northeastern edge of Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity). Mare Fecunditatis is centered at minus 7.83 degrees south latitude, 53.67 degrees east longitude. The equator-straddling lunar mare registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 6.11 degrees north and minus 21.7 degrees south, respectively. The eastern hemisphere dark, basaltic plain records easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 63.34 degrees east and 40.77 degrees east, respectively. Its diameter spans 840.35 kilometers.

Webb Crater lies to the west-southwest of Mare Spumans (Foaming Sea). Mare Spumans is centered at 1.3 degrees north latitude, 65.3 degrees east longitude. The equator-straddling mare’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 3.72 degrees north and minus 1.06 degrees south, respectively. The eastern hemisphere basaltic plain’s easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 66.73 degrees east and 63.61 degrees east, respectively. Its diameter measures 143.13 kilometers.

Webb Crater received official name approval in 1935 during the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Vth (5th) General Assembly, held Wednesday, July 10, to Wednesday, July 17, in Paris, France. The crater honors 19th-century Anglican clergyman and astronomer Thomas William Webb (Dec. 14, 1807-May 19, 1885).

Reverend Webb’s interest in observational astronomy dated back to 1825, according to E.G. Moore’s article in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association in 1975. Webb’s observations filled four large notebooks, with Jupiter figuring as his first recorded observation on Dec. 2, 1834. Webb became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) on Jan. 9, 1852.

In 1859, Reverend Webb published his classic Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. In the Introduction, he stated the treatise’s purpose as furnishing “. . . the possessors of ordinary telescopes with plain directions for their use, and a list of objects for their advantageous employment” (viii).

Webb defined “common telescopes” as those “. . . most frequently met within private hands.” He specified achromatic refractor telescopes with “. . . lengths up to 5 or 5 1/2 feet, with apertures up to 3 3/4 inches” or reflector telescopes “. . . of somewhat larger diameter, but in consequence of the loss of light in reflection, not greater brightness” (page 1).

Reverend Webb followed Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes with two more astronomy-themed books. In 1883, he published Optics Without Mathematics. The Sun: A Familiar Description of His Phaenomena appeared in 1885.

The takeaways for the lunar near side’s Webb Crater, which honors 19th-century British astronomer Thomas William Webb, are that the small lunar impact crater occupies the southeastern quadrant, lying in the northeastern Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity); and that the crater’s namesake was an Anglican clergyman whose interest in observational astronomy was evinced in his publication of his classic observational astronomy guide, Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, in 1859.

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows lunar near side’s Webb Crater (right center) in northeastern Mare Fecunditatis, to the west-southwest of Mare Spumans (upper right): 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 Lunar Astronautical Chart (LAC) 80 shows Webb Crater in the lunar near side’s southeastern quadrant, lying in the northeastern Mare Fecunditatis and to the west-southwest of Mare Spumans; courtesy NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) / GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center) / ASU (Arizona State University): U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Lunar/lac_80_wac.pdf

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows lunar near side’s Webb Crater (lower center) in northeastern Mare Fecunditatis, to the west-southwest of Mare Spumans: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/moon_nearside.pdf

For further information:

A.C.R. (Arthur Cowper Ranyard). “Thomas William Webb.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. XLVI, no. 4 (Feb. 12, 1886): 198-201.
Available @ https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/46/4/198/992498

Andersson, Leif E.; and Ewen A. Whitaker. NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature. NASA Reference Publication 1097. Washington DC: NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Branch, October 1982.
Available via NASA NTRS (NASA Technical Reports Server) @ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19830003761.pdf

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Elger, Thomas Gwyn. “Webb.” The Moon: A Full Description and Map of Its Principal Physical Features: 123. London UK: George Philip & Son, 1895.
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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3673

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Mare Spumans.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3690

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Target: The Moon.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/MOON/target

International Astronomical Union (IAU) / U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. “Webb.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature > Nomenclature > The Moon. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6504

Levy, David H. Skywatching. Revised and updated. San Francisco CA: Fog City Press, 1994.

Marriner, Derdriu. “De Morgan Crater Honors British Mathematician Augustus De Morgan.” Earth and Space News. Wednesday, June 27, 2012.
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Available @ https://the-moon.us/wiki/Mare_Fecunditatis

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Available @ https://the-moon.us/wiki/Mare_Spumans

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Available @ https://www.iau.org/publications/iau/transactions_b/

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Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/celestialobject02webbgoog/page/n11

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Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t8ff3p276
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Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/celestialobjects02webbrich/

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Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015064563078

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Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/opticswithoutmat00webbrich/

Webb, Thomas William, Rev. The Sun: A Familiar Description of His Phaenomena. London UK: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1885.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008905493