An Astronaut's Perspective

The Crater Moretus, bottom left of centre with central peak. On the horizon the the walls of craters close to the South Pole are illuminated by sunlight striking them at an oblique angle.

I have used software to manipulate my image taken from Earth to present a perspective view as might be expected if you were orbiting the Moon in your spacecraft. Just imagine speeding towards the Lunar South Pole and looking out the window just as you were about to fly over the crater Moretus!

Moretus crater was formed some 3.2 to 1.1 billion years ago in the same time period as the large crater Eratosphenes. Moretus  is roughly circular with a diameter of 114 kilometres. The crater is very deep, rim to floor approximately 5000 metres and the crater walls are steep and terraced. The terraces can be seen clearly in my image. The crater floor is composed of dark lava and is itself pocked with later craterlets. The central peak is 2700 metres above the crater floor. The crater can be seen with binoculars 6 days after full moon (waning moon) or during the first quarter (waxing moon).

The crater was named after Theodorus Moretus a 17th Century Jesuit Mathematician and Natural Philosopher. Not to be confused with Jan Moretus  the famous Flemish printer who was probably related.