Ramsden Crater Honors British Instrument Maker Jesse Ramsden

Summary: Ramsden Crater honors British instrument maker Jesse Ramsden, who created the Palermo Circle, the discovery telescope for dwarf planet Ceres in 1801.

Detail of image obtained in 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 4 mission shows lava-flooded Ramsden Crater, with depressed portions of northern and southern rim, and associated Rimae Ramsden’s clefts in the lunar near side’s Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics); NASA ID 4136 H3: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Ramsden Crater honors British instrument maker Jesse Ramsden, whose scientific creations include the Palermo Circle, the five-foot vertical circle refracting telescope through which minor dwarf planet Ceres was discovered in 1801.

Ramsden Crater is a lunar impact crater in the lunar near side’s southwestern quadrant. Depressions disrupt the north and south walls of the crater’s roughly oval rim. Small impact craters dot the crater’s lava-flooded interior floor.

Ramsden Crater is centered at minus 32.96 degrees south latitude, 31.87 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The southern hemisphere crater limits its northernmost and southernmost latitudes to minus 32.54 degrees south and minus 33.37 degrees south, respectively. The western hemisphere crater confines its easternmost and westernmost longitudes to minus 31.46 degrees west and minus 32.29 degrees west, respectively. Ramsden Crater has a diameter of 25.11 kilometers.

Victorian selenographer Thomas Gwyn Empy Elger (Oct. 27, 1836-Jan. 9, 1897) noted Ramsden Crater’s “. . . remarkable rill-system . . .” (page 110) in his popular lunar guide, The Moon: A Full Description and Map of Its Principal Physical Features, published in 1895. The rille (German: rille, “groove”) system, named Rimae Ramsden, wanders across western Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics).

Palus Epidemiarum hosts Ramsden Crater and its three satellites. Ramsden Crater and Ramsden A reside in Palus Epidemiarum’s western extent. Ramsden G and Ramsden H lie along southern Palus Epidemiarum, to the south and southwest, respectively, of their parent.

Palus Epidemiarum is a small, dark, basaltic plain. Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) and Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds) dominate the lunar surface to the north of Palus Epidemiarum.

Palus Epidemiarum is centered at minus 32 degrees south latitude, minus 27.54 degrees west longitude. The lunar mare’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes stretch to minus 28.88 degrees south and minus 36.47 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach minus 21.72 degrees west and minus 33.43 degrees west, respectively. Palus Epidemiarum’s length measures 300.38 kilometers.

Lepaute Crater is Ramsden Crater’s nearest, non-Ramsden Crater system neighbor in Palus Epidemiarum. Lepaute lies along Palus Epidemiarum’s western edge, to the west of Ramsden. The elongated lunar impact crater presents an uneventful, level interior floor.

Lepaute Crater is centered at minus 33.3 degrees south latitude, minus 33.69 degrees west longitude. It registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes of minus 33.04 degrees south and minus 33.56 degrees south, respectively. It records easternmost and westernmost longitudes of minus 33.45 degrees west and minus 33.93 degrees west, respectively. Lepaute Crater has a diameter of 16.36 kilometers.

Ramsden Crater honors British instrument maker Jesse Ramsden (Oct. 6, 1735-Nov. 5, 1800). The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Ramsden as the crater’s official name in 1935, during the organization’s Vth (5th) General Assembly, which was held from Wednesday, July 10, to Wednesday, July 17, in Paris, France. The letter designations of the Ramsden Crater system’s three satellites were approved in 2006.

Jesse Ramsden was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society (FRS) on Dec. 1, 1786. The Royal Society’s website identifies Ramsden’s profession as scientific instrument maker, with specializations in mathematics, optics and physics. Ramsden’s Fellow webpage notes the “incredible accuracy,” “great” practicality and beauty of instruments created by perfectionist Ramsden.

Irish astronomer and writer Agnes Mary Clerke (Feb. 10, 1842-Jan. 20, 1907) states in her entry on Ramsden for the Dictionary of National Biography that Ramsden’s “most famous work” was the five-foot diameter refracting telescope that he created for Italian Theatine priest, astronomer and mathematician Giuseppe Piazzi (July 16, 1746-July 22, 1826). Known as the Palermo Circle, the telescope was installed at Sicily’s Palermo Observatory (Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo), which was officially founded on July 1, 1790. Piazzi is credited with discovering the inner solar system’s only dwarf planet, Ceres, via the Palermo Circle on Jan. 1, 1801.

The takeaways for Ramsden Crater, which honors British instrument maker Jesse Ramdsen, are that the lunar impact crater resides in western Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics) in the near side’s southwestern quadrant; that the primary crater parents three satellites; and that the crater’s namesake’s most famous creation was the Palermo Circle, the five-foot vertical circle refracting telescope through which the discovery of Ceres, the inner solar system’s only dwarf planet, was obtained in 1801.

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows Ramsden Crater (lower center) in western Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics) in the near side’s southwestern 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 image obtained in 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 4 mission shows lava-flooded Ramsden Crater, with depressed portions of northern and southern rim, and associated Rimae Ramsden’s clefts in the lunar near side’s Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics); NASA ID 4136 H3: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramsden_crater_4136_h3.jpg

Detail of Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography Map shows Ramsden Crater (lower center) in western Palus Epidemiarum (Marsh of Epidemics) in the near side’s southwestern quadrant: U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Astrogeology Science Center / Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/moon_nearside.pdf

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