Amundsen Satellite A Now Honors Hungarian Geophysicist Péter Hédervári

Summary: The lunar near side’s south polar Amundsen satellite A now honors Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári with its renaming as Hédervári Crater.

Detail of Lunar Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 144 shows Hédervári Crater (center right), between former parent, Amundsen Crater (left) and Amundsen satellite C (right); also Nobile (above, center), Faustini (center; left of Amundsen) and Shackleton (center left) joined Hédervári in receiving official name approval in 1994, during the IAU’s XXIInd (22nd) General Assembly; scale 1:1,000,000 Polar Stereographic Projection: Courtesy NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center)/ASU (Arizona State University), via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

The lunar near side’s south polar Amundsen satellite A now honors Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári with its official renaming as Hédervári Crater in 1994.

Hédervári Crater adjoins its former parent’s northern rim. The northern rim, wall and floor of Amundsen Crater’s former satellite A, in turn, hosts its parent’s only remaining satellite, Amundsen C.

A rough mound approximately marks the midpoint of the crater’s floor. The mound emerges from a pitted floor that contrasts roughness with levelness.

Hédervári is centered at minus 81.77 degrees south latitude, 85.6 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The eroded, rough crater registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes at minus 80.53 degrees south and minus 82.98 degrees south, respectively. Hédervári achieves easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 94.12 degrees east and 77.01 degrees east, respectively. The south polar crater’s diameter measures 74.14 kilometers.

The IAU officially approved Hédervári as the crater’s new name in 1994. The crater’s renaming honors Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári (April 29, 1931-June 27, 1984).

A memorial tribute in the October 1985 issue of The Strolling Astronomer, the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers’ (ALPO) journal, noted Dr. Hédervári’s passing away, at age 53, from a heart attack. The Budapest-born scientist received his doctoral degree in Geography and Planetary Geology at his hometown’s prestigious public research university, Eötvös Loránd University (Hungarian: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE), in 1970.

Hédervári pursued his interest in observational astronomy via his own private observatory. In his description of his observatory for the September 1980 issue of the International Amateur and Professional Photoelectric Photometry (IAPPP) association, he placed the observatory in Budapest at 47 degrees 31 minutes 25 degrees north latitude, 19 degrees 02 minutes 33.7 seconds east longitude. In his article for November 1976 issue of The Strolling Astronomer, he specified the location as sited on the banks of the Duna (Danube), facing the central part of Margaret Island. He declared the air around the Danube as clear and dust-free.

He had the observatory built approximately two years prior to this announcement, i.e., circa 1978. He named it The Georgiana Observatory in honor of his wife. Built on a concrete base, the brick building had a rotating metal dome that weighed about 600 kilograms. The altitude of the observatory’s upper observing site measured 118.08 meters above sea level.

Hédervári noted that his initial observations concerned transient lunar phenomena (TLPs). Transient lunar phenomena reference localized, short-lived flashes or glows in optical wavelenths on the surface of Earth’s moon.

He considered TLP as co-author of “The Importance of the Observation of Earthquake Lights as Precursory Phenomena of Impending Earthquakes.” Hédervári and Zoltán Noszticzius presented their research at the European Seismological Commission’s (ESC) Seventeenth Assembly, which was held in Budapest from Sunday, Aug. 24, to Friday, Aug. 29, 1980. The physicists suggested that escaping gases and chemiluminescence, the phenomenon of light emission during a chemical reaction, account for earthquake lights and transient lunar phenomena.

The Strolling Astronomer’s editor, geographer and amateur astronomer John E. Westfall (born Aug. 16, 1938), noted that Péter Hédervári sadly predeceased the 1986 apparition of Comet Halley (1P/Halley). He had been making plans for photographic and visual observations of the solar system’s well known short-period comet.

The Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)’s announcement of the new name of Hédervári for Amundsen satellite C occurred during its 23rd regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 1994. The group convened during the IAU’s XXIInd (22nd) General Assembly. The General Assembly was held from Monday, Aug. 15, to Saturday, Aug. 27, in The Hague, Netherlands.

The WGPSN identified new nomenclature approved during August’s General Assembly. Hédervári numbered among eight new names for lunar craters. Also receiving approval were Ashbrook, for 20th century American astronomer Joseph Ashbrook; Chappe, for 18th century French astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche; Faustini, for 20th century Italian polar geographer Arnaldo Faustini; Nobile, for 20th century Italian Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile; Rosseland, for 20th century Norwegian astrophysicist Svein Rosseland; Shackleton, for 20th century Irish-born British Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton; and von Braun, for German-American rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun.

The takeaways for Amundsen satellite A now honoring Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári are that lunar near side south polar crater Hédervári adjoins the northern rim of its former parent and hosts Amundsen’s only satellite, C, in its northern sector and that Péter Hédervári pursued his interests in astronomy via his private observatory, named The Georgiana Observatory after his wife, along the Danube in his hometown, Budapest.

lunar near side south polar crater Hédervári’s namesake, Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári, ca. 1980: The tominator ca, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

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 Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 144 shows Hédervári Crater (center right), between former parent, Amundsen Crater (left) and Amundsen satellite C (right); also Nobile (above, center), Faustini (center; left of Amundsen) and Shackleton (center left) joined Hédervári in receiving official name approval in 1994, during the IAU’s XXIInd (22nd) General Assembly; scale 1:1,000,000 Polar Stereographic Projection: Courtesy NASA/GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center)/ASU (Arizona State University), via IAU/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Lunar/lac_144_wac.pdf

lunar near side south polar crater Hédervári’s namesake, Hungarian geophysicist Péter Hédervári, ca. 1980: The tominator CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hedervari_Peter.jpg

For further information:

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