PCW Memorial Observatory – Erika Rix

During the Lunar tour, my left eye kept wandering back to the Southern edges of Mare Nectaris. There was a flooded crater with the northern edges gone. Flipping the pages of my velveteen Rukl, I discovered the crater in question to be Fracastorius. Girolamo Fracastoro, 1483-1553, was an Italian physician, astronomer and poet….kind of reminds me of Tom: plant physician, astronomer, and writer (only not quite as old as Girolamo)!

If anyone has the Rukl Atlas, turn to page 142 (map 58). The drawing from Rukl did not show the lines I saw reaching north in the middle of the crater. However, on page 142 there is a photograph that does show little lines of hills (almost resembling a ghost crater in the middle of Fracastorius).