Far Side Lunar Crater System Stebbins Honors American Astronomer Joel Stebbins

Summary: Far side lunar crater system Stebbins honors American astronomer Joel Stebbins, a pioneer in measuring the color and intensity of stellar light via photoelectric photometry.

Detail of Lunar Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 8 shows the lunar far side’s Stebbins Crater (lower left) with attached satellite U (lower left) and independent satellite C (center right); 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

Far side lunar crater system Stebbins honors American astronomer Joel Stebbins, who pioneered the precise measurement of the colors and magnitudes of astronomical objects via photoelectric photometry.

Stebbins Crater lies in the uppermost reaches of the northern hemisphere's middle latitudes on the moon's far side. The eroded, worn lunar impact crater is centered at 64.36 degrees north latitude, minus 142.64 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 66.5 degrees north and 62.22 degrees north, respectively. The impact-riddled crater obtains easternmost and westernmost longitudes of minus 137.69 degrees east and minus 147.59 degrees east, respectively. Moore’s diameter spans 129.74 kilometers.

Stebbins Crater occupies the north-northeastern rim of Birkhoff Crater. About one-third of Stebbins Crater spills into Birkhoff's interior.

Heavily eroded Birkhoff Crater is centered at 58.45 degrees north latitude, minus 145.65 degrees east longitude. The northern hemisphere crater finds its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 64.09 degrees north and 53.21 degrees north, respectively. Birkhoff establishes its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at minus 135.98 degrees east and minus 156.96 degrees east, respectively. Birkhoff's diameter measures 329.81 kilometers.

Birkhoff Crater parents eight satellites (K, L, M, Q, R, X, Y, Z). Stebbins Crater shares Birkhoff's walled plain with all eight of Birkhoff's satellites.

Stebbins Crater hosts two satellites (C, U). Satellite C occupies an independent position to the northwest of Birkhoff Crater. Satellite U is located with its parent on Birkhoff Crater's north-northeastern rim.

Satellite C overlies the northwestern section of its southeastern neighbor, an unnamed, seemingly circular crater. The Stebbins Crater system's northernmost member also brushes against its northeastern neighbor, an elongated, unnamed crater that supports Mezentsev Crater system's satellite Q on its northeastern rim.

C is centered at 67.36 degrees north latitude, minus 134.01 degrees east longitude. C establishes its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 68.11 degrees north and 66.61 degrees north, respectively. It marks its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at minus 132.29 degrees east and minus 135.76 degrees east, respectively. Satellite C's diameter of 46.92 kilometers qualifies it as the larger of the Stebbins Crater system's two satellites.

Satellite U spills across its parent's north-northeastern rim. U is centered at 64.91 degrees north latitude, minus 148.11 degrees east longitude. U confines its northernmost and southernmost latitudes to 65.65 degrees north and 64.18 degrees north, respectively. U posts easternmost and westernmost longitudes of minus 146.39 degrees east and minus 149.84 degrees east, respectively. Satellite U has a diameter of 44.35 kilometers.

Satellite U's placement qualifies it as the Stebbins Crater system's only fully middle latitude resident. U's northernmost extent of 65.65 degrees north misses the southernmost extent (66 degrees north latitude) of the northern hemisphere's polar latitudes by 0.35 degrees.

Satellite C's location qualifies it as the Stebbins Crater system's only full polar latitude resident. Its southernmost latitude of 66.61 degrees north shies 0.39 degrees north of the northern polar region's southernmost extent.

Parent crater Stebbins lightly intrudes, by 0.5 degrees, into the polar region with its northernmost latitude of 66.5 degrees north. Stebbins primarily claims middle latitude residency.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Stebbins as the primary crater's name in 1970, during the organization’s XIVth (14th) General Assembly, held in Brighton, United Kingdom, from Tuesday, Aug. 18, to Thursday, Aug. 27, 1970. Satellites C and U received approval of their designations in 2006, the year of the IAU’s XXVIth (26th) General Assembly, which was held Monday, Aug. 14, to Friday, Aug. 25, in Prague, Czech Republic.

The Stebbins Crater system honors Omaha, Nebraska-born American astronomer Joel Stebbins (July 30,1878-March 16,1966). In his 1978 biography of Stebbins for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), American astronomer and physicist Albert Edward Whitford (Oct. 22, 1905-March 28, 2002) observed that Stebbins' Ph.D. dissertation on the spectrum of Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti; Omicron Cet, ο Cet), known popularly as Mira, claimed stature as the principal information source on long-term variable spectra for "almost twenty years" (page 296). Whitford noted that Stebbins' receipt of his Ph.D. in May 1903 marked the third Astronomy doctoral degree granted by the University of California.

Stebbins published his last paper in 1964 in the Astrophysical Journal, the science journal of astrophysics and astronomy that had published Stebbins' dissertation in December 1903. Co-authored with American astronomer Gerald Edward Kron (April 6, 1913-April 9, 2012), the paper considered the six-color photometry of 25 stars.

The takeaways for the far side lunar crater system Stebbins honoring American astronomer Joel Stebbins are that Stebbins Crater parents two satellites (C, U) in the far side's northern hemisphere and that the system honors American astronomer Joel Stebbins, who pioneered astronomical photoelectric photometry as a precise technique for measuring the colors and magnitudes of astronomical objects.

oblique view of the lunar far side's Stebbins Crater and attached satellite U (upper right), obtained 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 5: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), 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) 8 shows the lunar far side’s Stebbins Crater (lower left) with attached satellite U (lower left) and independent satellite C (center right); 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_8_wac.pdf

oblique view of the lunar far side's Stebbins Crater and attached satellite U (upper right), obtained 1967 by Lunar Orbiter 5: James Stuby (Jstuby), Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stebbins_crater_5006_med.jpg

For further information:

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De Jager, C. (Cornelius) ; and A. (Arnost) Jappel, eds. XIVth General Assembly -- Transactions of the IAU Vol. XIV B Proceedings of the 14th General Assembly Brighton, United Kingdom, August 18-27, 1970. Washington DC: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Jan. 1, 1971.
Available @ https://www.iau.org/publications/iau/transactions_b/

Genet, Russell M. "Joel Stebbins: Pioneer of Astronomical Photoelectric Photometry." International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry, Communication, No. 6 (November 1981): 1-3.
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1981IAPPP...6....1G

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/753

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5686

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Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/13214

International Astronomical Union. “Stebbins U.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/13215

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Stebbins, Joel. "The Spectrum of o Ceti." The Astrophysical Journal, vol. XVIII, no. 5 (December 1903): 341-380.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044059981506?urlappend=%3Bseq=395

Stebbins, Joel; and Gerald E. Kron. "Six-Color Photometry of Stars. XI. Black-Body Color Temperatures of 25 Stars." The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 139, no. 2 (March 1964): 424-434.
Available via Harvard ADSABS (NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstracts) @ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1964ApJ...139..424S

U.S. Geological Survey. Color-Coded Topography and Shaded Relief Map of the Lunar Near Side and Far Side Hemispheres. U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2769. Page last modified Nov. 30, 2016. Flagstaff AZ: U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center, 2003.
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Available @ https://www.iau.org/publications/iau/transactions_b/

Whitford, A.E. (Albert Edward). Joel Stebbins 1878-1966: A Biographical Memoir. Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1978.
Available @ http://nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/stebbins-joel.pdf