Near Side Huggins Crater Honors British Astronomer Sir William Huggins

Summary: Near side Huggins Crater honors British astronomer Sir Williams Huggins, pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy, light composition by spectral analysis.

Detail of Lunar Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 112 shows the Huggins Crater system (lower center left), comprising the parental crater and single satellite, and nesting chain of overlapped craters Orontius, Huggins and Nasireddin; scale 1:1,000,000; Mercator Projection: United States Air Force (USAF) Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (ACIC) via USGS/Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

Near side Huggins Crater honors British astronomer Sir Williams Huggins, pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy, which seeks chemical composition via analysis of a celestial body's spectral lines.

Huggins Crater resides in the cratered southeastern quadrant of the moon's near side. The middle-latitude crater lies in the central portion of the near side's southern hemisphere. The crater's central portion occupancy places Huggins less than two degrees west of the moon’s prime meridian, which, at longitude zero degrees, separates the moon's eastern and western hemispheres. The prime meridian’s longitude of zero degrees demarcates the moon’s eastern and western hemispheres. The imaginary longitudinal line's endpoints mark the near side's north and south poles.

Huggins Crater is centered at minus 41.07 degrees south latitude, minus 1.52 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The southern hemisphere crater registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes at minus 39.98 degrees south and minus 42.15 degrees south, respectively. The western hemisphere crater records easternmost and westernmost longitudes of minus 0.08 degrees west and minus 2.96 degrees west, respectively. Huggins Crater's diameter spans 65.79 kilometers.

The lunar impact crater hosts one satellite. Huggins A occupies its parent's interior floor as an attachment to the inner wall of its parent's northwestern rim.

Huggins A is centered at minus 40.66 degrees south latitude, minus 2.27 degrees west longitude. The satellite's northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at minus 40.5 degrees south and minus 40.82 degrees south, respectively. Huggins A finds its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at minus 2.06 degrees west and minus 2.48 degrees west, respectively. The Huggins Crater system's only satellite has a diameter of 9.62 kilometers.

The Huggins Crater system forms a chain of overlapping craters with Orontius to the west and Nasireddin to the east. The western rim of Huggins intrudes across the eastern rim of Orontius, while Nasireddin's western rim is superpositioned on Huggins's eastern rim.

Battered and cratered Orontius Crater is centered at minus 40.37 degrees south latitude, minus 3.96 degrees west longitude. Orontius posts northernmost and southernmost latitudes of minus 38.37 degrees south and minus 42.36 degrees south, respectively. It marks its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at minus 1.34 degrees west and minus 6.58 degrees west, respectively. Orontius Crater's diameter spans 121.02 kilometers.

On Huggins Crater's eastern flank, Nasireddin is centered at minus 41.04 degrees south latitude, 0.14 degrees east longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes touch minus 40.18 degrees south and minus 41.9 degrees south, respectively. The terrace-walled crater registers easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 1.28 degrees east and minus 0.99 degrees west, respectively. Nasireddin Crater's diameter measures 51.99 kilometers.

Orontius Crater's diameter of 121.02 kilometers qualifies the worn crater as the largest of the triple crater chain of Orontius, Huggins and Nasireddin. Nasireddin's 51.99 kilometer-diameter qualifies the youngest overlier as the chain's smallest crater.

Huggins Crater system is located southeast of the western hemisphere's Mare Nubium ("Sea of Clouds"). The dark, basaltic plain is centered at minus 20.59 south latitude, minus 17.29 degrees west longitude. The lunar mare's northernmost and southernmost latitudes reach minus 11.85 degrees south and minus 30.48 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes extend to minus 5.45 degrees west and minus 29.27 degrees west, respectively. The Sea of Clouds has a diameter of 714.5 kilometers.

The Huggins Crater system honors British astronomer Sir William Huggins (Feb. 7, 1824-May 12, 1910). The International Astronomical Union formally approved Huggins Crater’s name in 1935, during the organization’s Vth (5th) General Assembly, held in Paris, France, from Wednesday, July 10, to Wednesday, July 17. The designation of the Huggins Crater system's single satellite was approved in 2006.

Sir William's interest in astronomical spectroscopy, which analyzes spectral lines to determine a celestial body's composition, dated to the 1860 publication of findings in 1859 of the sun's chemical composition via spectroscopy by German physicist Gustav Kirchoff (March 12, 1824-Oct. 17, 1887) and German chemist Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (March 30, 1811-Aug. 16, 1899). Sir William made his investigations in astronomical spectroscopy collaboratively with King's College, London, Professor of Chemistry William Allen Miller (Dec. 17, 1817-Sept. 30, 1870) until Miller's death in 1870. After his 1875 marriage to Irish-English self-taught astronomer and photographer Margaret Lindsay Murray (Aug. 14, 1848-March 24, 1915), he collaborated with his wife for 35 years, until his own death in 1910.

Sir William followed his family trade of drapery merchants from 1842 to 1854, according to science textbook author David Abbott's The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists: Astronomers (1984; page 79). He then sold the business and relocated with his parents, William Thomas Huggins (1780?–1856) and Lucy Miller (1786?–1868), to Tulse Hill, now a district in the South London Borough of Lambeth.

Sir William built a small, private observatory at 90 Tulse Hill. He equipped his observatory with a 5-inch (130-millimeter) equatorial telescope mount by English astronomical and optical instrument maker John Dollond (June 21, 1706-Nov. 30, 1761) and, in 1858, added an 8-inch (200-millimter) refractor telescope by American optics maker Alvan Clark & Sons, according to English amateur astronomer Sir Patrick Moore's (March 4, 1923-Dec. 9, 2012) Astronomy Encyclopedia (2002; page 188).

David Abbott pointed out that Sir William's three fundamental, fame-making discoveries were accomplished with his "modest" 8-inch refractor. He showed that stars contain calcium, hydrogen, iron and sodium and that "well-known elements" make up the Universe; that some nebulae, such as in Orion the Hunter constellation, are gaseous, rather than stellar, clusters; and that stellar composition, motion and velocities could be determined via spectroscopy.

The takeaways for near side Huggins Crater's honoring British astronomer Sir William Huggins are that the lunar impact crater's location in the near side's cratered southeastern quadrant places it less than two degrees west of the lunar prime meridian, the divider of the moon's eastern and western hemispheres; that Huggins Crater parents one satellite, Huggins A, as an interior craterlet attached to the inner wall of its parent's northwestern rim; that Huggins Crater occupies the middle position in a chain of overlapping craters with Orontius to the west and Nasireddin to the east; and that Huggins Crater eponymizes Sir William Huggins, pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy.

Detail of Near Side Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography shows lunar near side southeastern quadrant's Huggins Crater (lower center) in a nesting chain of overlapped craters Orontius, Huggins and Nasireddin: 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 Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 112 shows the Huggins Crater system (lower center left), comprising the parental crater and single satellite, and nesting chain of overlapped craters Orontius, Huggins and Nasireddin; scale 1:1,000,000; Mercator Projection: United States Air Force (USAF) Aeronautical Chart and Information Center (ACIC) via USGS/Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Lunar/lac_112_wac.pdf

Detail of Near Side Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography shows lunar near side southeastern quadrant's Huggins Crater (lower center) in a nesting chain of overlapped craters Orontius, Huggins and Nasireddin: 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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