Devoted to the Study of Earth’s Moon Vol. 24 No. 1 SPRING 2005 SELENOLOGY The Journal of The American Lunar Society Selenology Vol. 24 No. 1 - Spring 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS: Meet the Editor / About ALS Membership ................................ 2 Lunar Domes on the Farside of the Moon .................................. 3 Table of Lunar Features.............................................................. 6 The Strange Space Object JE002E3............................................ 8 The Moon Through a Fine Refractor .......................................... 12 The Lunar Mineral Hapkeite....................................................... 14 The First Space Exploration Conference, January 2005 ............. 16 Lunar Eclipse Seen Well at the Christine Alley Observatory ..... 20 COVER: The cover shows a Raytheon concept for a lunar orbiting station as part of the Raytheon architecture for lunar return. See the article on the First Space Exploration Conference on page 16. Selenology, Vol. 24 No. 1, Spring 2005. Publication of the American Lunar Society. President: Eric Douglass; Vice President: Steve Boint; Editor: Francis G. Graham. Copyright © 2005 by the American Lunar Society and individual authors; all rights reserved. See our website at www.otterdad.dynip.com/als/ Send manuscripts, general observations, and other correspondence to: Francis G. Graham, Kent State University East Liverpool Campus, 400 E. 4th St., East Liverpool, OH 43920 Phone: 330-382-7466 — E-mail: [email protected]. Page 2 SELENOLOGY Vol. 24 No. 1 NEW EDITOR Selenology has a new editor! Francis Graham had edited Selenology before in 1982- 1999. He is back, and will strive to make this publication the best it can be. It will continue to be devoted to the Earth’s Moon and the ideas related to it. Francis was one of the founders of the American Lunar Society. Although in 1999- 2004 he was involved with research on unusual flying machines, he returns to the Moon with this issue. Francis Graham can be contacted at Kent State University, East Liverpool branch, at 330- 382-7466. You may e-mail Francis at [email protected]. Please introduce yourself and tell what you thought of this issue. ALS MEMBERSHIP Joining the American Lunar Society is Above: Your editor at the 9.5-inch refractor simple. Our only at Case Western Reserve University. requirement is that you are interested in lunar observation or studies. Once a member, you The ALS membership is composed of ama- will receive this quarterly journal, Selenology. teurs and professionals who are involved in lunar To become a member, mail a letter to the observation and research. To keep this organiza- address below, with a check for current dues tion both viable and current, we need your help. (USA members: 15$; other country members: You can best assist us in the following ways: 15$.) Note: please make the check out to Eric Douglass, VP ALS, and be sure to include both your e-mail address and snail mail (1) Become a member of the ALS address. (2) Contribute articles to the ALS web site or Selenology journal. (see page 5) Eric Douglass (3) Involve your children's science program 10326 Tarleton Dr. in our projects Mechanicsville, VA 23116 (4) Make other ALS members aware of your projects SPRING 2005 Page 3 LUNAR DOMES ON THE FARSIDE OF THE MOON By Raffaello Lena and Rodrigo Viegas ALS and GLR group 1-Introduction The International Farside Lunar Dome Survey (FLDS) is a joint effort of the American Lunar Maunder Society (ALS) and the Geologic Lunar Research group (GLR). As the USGS digitizes all Lunar Orbiter images [1] at high resolution, it will be possible to do an inventory of farside domes. Since the project is a long term study [2], any report of specific farside domes-swellings should II’in not be viewed as a final report. Digitized images and notes will continue to be accepted and included in our catalogue. The purpose of this study are : 1. to classify some structures according to their Fig. 1 morphologic characteristics; 2. to gather data on associated features in order to of the area of the dome ". It is of interest that some provide information on their origin and to features in Mare Orientale-Lacus Veris region, understand their geologic setting. likely do not meet the Westfall criteria for the secondary features. This article describes Mare Orientale and Lacus Veris. Domes have been also classified according to their morphology and mode of origin by James Head and Ann Gifford [4] who considered the 2-General classification characteristics of over 200 domes and grouped Several volcanic features were identified them into seven categories, as follows: during a morphologic survey of the Mare Classes 1-2-3 refer to volcanic features Orientale-Lacus Veris region. Table 1 reports their resembling terrestrial shields. location and characteristics. A classification Class 4 refers to dome-like features associated scheme describes a complex structure in the most with ridges and mare arches. Because of the general terms. Swellings on the maria, irregular complex topography of ridge/arch it is not certain if swellings, low plateaus and steep-sided hills may this class represents a dome type. be referred to as domes even though many of these features may not be true volcanic domes. Class 5 includes domes that originated from lava mantling of pre-existing highland topography. J. Westfall in his article “A generic classification of lunar domes” [3], gives the Class 6 includes domes with higher albedo following definition for a lunar dome: "A discrete, than mare material and steeper slopes compared regular swelling whose ratio of major axis/minor with ordinary domes. axis, when corrected for foreshortening, does not Class 7 are complex maria domes with exceed 2:1, and whose maximum slope, not irregular outline and topography (i.e. Marius Hills). including secondary features, does not exceed 5°. Classes 1, 2, 3 and 7 are, in most cases, the Domes may exhibit secondary features, such as direct result of volcanic activity. Classes 5 and 6 pits, clefts, ridges, and hills, as long as any single are the result of the draping of pre-existing such feature does not occupy more than a quarter (Continued on page 4) Page 4 SELENOLOGY Vol. 24 No. 1 (Continued from page 3) In this region there is another irregular feature topography (secondary volcanic effects such as (figure 3) that covers a collapse depression. This flooding of highland material and draping of lavas irregular object, located near the crater Kopff, to produce irregular dome like topography). Class 4 could be another swelling (#4). structures are mainly associated with mare ridges. Lunar Orbiter frame IV-181-H2 (figure 5) shows Several volcanic features (Table 1) were interesting features located in Lacus Veris to the identified during our survey. Their characteristics SW of the crater Lallemand. The marked feature A are summarized as follows: (#5) is a complex structure closely related with two a) they have a flat summit and a general lateral low plateau-like structures. Feature A may irregular outline; be a group of separate units (it appears to have 3-4 b) the flat summit and irregular outline are structures). The central feature, with an irregular more abundant in the Orientale-Lacus Veris shape, is bisected by a rille. region than elsewhere on the Nearside; In the same figure (5) there is another dome, c) most of them represent examples of marked as B, that is located at longitude -84.76° swelling or, maybe, non-swelling high-lava and latitude -17.67° (Xi -0.948, Eta -0.308). It remnants; shows an irregular shape and a flat summit with an d) the described domes (Table 1) refer to Class elongated depression or fissure (it may be described 2 in the Head classification system. Domes in the Westfall system as DW/2d/5g/7j). In of Class 2 are similar to Class 1 but with a addition, we detected two low features marked as C pancake-like cross-sectional outline, having and D in figure 5, which may be swellings or low a penchant toward flat tops and steeper domes. Feature D is closely associated with sides. They range from 6.0 to 16.0 km in highland units; the presence and shape of the rilles diameter. 73% of these domes have summit on its summit suggests a laccolithic nature for this craters. feature. Nevertheless, it can also be interpreted as being the result of secondary volcanic effects, so it 3-Farside list can also be described as Class 5 in Head’s classification scheme. Lunar Orbiter frame IV-195-H2 (figure 1) shows a low dome, elliptical in shape with a flat complex It is interesting to note that feature B can also be summit, located near the crater Hohmann (#2 in seen in LO-IV-187-H2 (figure 4). It appears in the Table 1). Another irregular structure lies near the A.L.P.O. Lunar Dome list as Xi -0.947, Eta -0.313 crater Maunder (#1); it may be described as a (entry #6). Head reported this dome at 85.0° W and possible swelling. The presence of dark halo craters 18.0°S. Interestingly, the central craterlet is esti- near both craters (see figure 1) is also of note. mated as 1.5 km. Using the Westfall classification These two swellings are blanketed by ejecta from scheme, it can be described as DW/ 2a/5g/7j. Maunder. Finally, Lunar Orbiter frame IV-187-H2 Another dome-like plateau was found in Lunar (figure 6) shows dark haloed craters suggestive of Orbiter frame IV-195-H1 (figure 2). It lies near the cones or explosive processes of endogenous nature. crater Shulejkin (#3). Because of its shape one may Nevertheless, they could have formed as a result of question whether this dome-like plateau should be impacts that penetrated the surface ejecta layer and classified as a dome.