Monday, November 23, 2009

Luna ≈ Day 7


39% Waxing Crescent. Nikon S6 (handheld) through Pentax 10x50 binoculars.

Prominent crater toward bottom: Maurolycus. This was named after Francesco Maurolico, an Italian mathematician and astronomer. Maurolico sighted a supernova in Cassiopeia in 1572, but Tycho Brahe got much of the credit, including the name of the supernova.

Two smaller craters toward top (bottom one first): Eudoxus and Aristoteles.

Eudoxus was a Greek astronomer/mathematician who studied under Plato. Eudoxus developed a type of mathematics that was a precursor to integral calculus.

Aristoteles is named after Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who was integral in the founding of Western philosophy. Yet another student of Plato, he believed that since women are "colder" than men, they are a lower form of life, even going so far as to say they are not fully human. Wow.

Lunar Geography note: Plato (a larger lunar crater) is located just to the east of this subordinate pair. I'm sure the geographic nomenclature of the moon has many more instances of this "teacher/pupil" coincidence.

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