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View Full Version here: : Rimae Mersenius and de Gasparis


bkm2304
13-04-2024, 09:25 AM
Morning all,

Complex and striking crater, Gassendi sits on the shores of Mare Humorum. Details of this and other features can be found in an earlier post (https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=209394).

Crater Cavendish is named for English chemist, Henry Cavendish (1731-1810). Mainly remembered for discovering hydrogen or "flammable air" - he got that right. Cavendish was possibly autistic and definitely uber-rich with Dukedoms on both sides of the family. The Cavendish family is remembered for the Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge, most recently remembered for the work of Crick and Watson on the structure of DNA, and, of course, the Cavendish banana!

Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) was a German chemist considered to be the "Father" of the Fertiliser industry. One of his many students was August Kekule, another dad or at least co-parent, this time of organic chemistry, who had a dozy daydream of a snake bowling along the road after him - or one of many variations on the story - which gave him insight into the ring nature of the 6 carbon molecule, Benzene.

Rimae de Gasparis are a series of short, complex rimae (gullies/rilles) mainly seen as the prominent parallel rimae running between Liebig and the crater de Gasparis. Clearly though, they can be seen as a subset of the more extensive Rimae Mersenius group and together they form and almost continuous feature from north west of Gassendi to de Gasparis crater.

Annibale de Gasparis (1819-1892) was an Italian astronomer who discovered some of the better known asteroids such as 10 Hygiea and 16 Psyche. A prolific publisher and man of steadfast values, de Gasparis was made a senator in the Kingdom of Italy - there was some crazy notion back then that scientists were valued and needed to be listened to.....

ZWO 178mm camera, Celestron 9.25" telescope. Approx. 2,000 frames stacked in Autostakkert!3 and sharpened in Registax.
Richard

John W
13-04-2024, 01:40 PM
Nice close up of this region Richard - well done.Cheers, John W.

Tinderboxsky
13-04-2024, 05:28 PM
Fabulous image, Richard, with lots to explore. I enjoy your background notes.

Dennis
13-04-2024, 07:35 PM
Love the detail in these, especially in Gassendi, one of my favourite craters.:thumbsup:

Dennis

OzEclipse
13-04-2024, 09:26 PM
Excellent detailed image Richard.

Joe

bkm2304
14-04-2024, 09:13 AM
Thanks guys. I'm thoroughly enjoying having more time nowadays to grab some images when I can and chase up the stories behind the names etc.

Richarc