PCW Memorial Observatory – Erika Rix

Atlas: The romantic version states that in Greek mythology, Atlas would stand at the western end of the earth, bearing the sky on his shoulders. Riccioli says he was a Moroccan king (appr. 1580 BC) that was interested in astronomy. (Rukl 15)

Depending on which reference you use, Atlas is around 87-90km and contains the Rimae Atlas (pity I couldn’t see this, could have been the shadows or perhaps my scope isn’t powerful enough), a central mountain, hills and craterlets. I was thrilled to see highlights of the floor of this crater and have tried to capture it in my sketch. There was a faint crinkle in the crater walls on the Eastern side running horizontally.

At first, I thought Atlas’ outer edges looked like a fat rounded starfish with his little toes sticking out. But then I realized it was my shivering and frosty breath playing tricks with the focus. So I started holding my breath or breathing out of the side of my mouth, then the starfish left. However in return, the crater looked liked he was sticking his tongue out at me. A quick glance in Rukl 6 showed this to be Atlas E, to the NNW of Atlas. The tongue, or rather crater, is appr. 58km.

To the West of Atlas I found Hercules (Rukl 14), appr. 69-71km. According to Greek Mythology, he was a hero with super human strength. I always seem to find shapes in the craters, and with this one I found the dog from the Dr. Seuss books. His nose is pointed north, eyes slightly slanted, mouth is the Eastern part of Hercules G (13km), and his ear is flopping back along his neck. If you wanted to really see more into it, then I guess you could call the oblong circle under his chin his bowl of dog food.