File: Franz is a small

lunar Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon". Lunar may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games * "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta * "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...

identified during the Apollo mission in August 1971 and located along the eastern edge of the

Sinus Amoris Sinus Amoris (Latin ''sinus amōris'' "Bay of Love") extends northward from the northeast end of the Mare Tranquillitatis. It is located at selenographic coordinates 19.9° N, 37.3° E, and lies within a diameter of 190 km. To the north of ...

, a bay that forms a northern extension to the

Mare Tranquillitatis Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin ''tranquillitātis'', the Sea of Tranquillity or Sea of Tranquility; see spelling differences) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It is the first location on another world to be ...

. Its diameter is 25 km. It was named after German astronomer

Julius Heinrich Franz Julius Heinrich Franz (28 June 1847 – 28 January 1913) was a German astronomer. Franz was born in Rummelsburg, Prussian Pomerania, he studied at the Universities of Greifswald, Halle and Berlin, after which he was the principal astronomer ...

. It lies to the southwest of the prominent crater Macrobius. To the north is the smaller Carmichael, and to the northwest is the diminutive

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...

. The rim of this crater has been eroded due to subsequent impacts, although it retains a generally circular form. The interior has been flooded, leaving only a narrow inner wall and a low surviving rim. This floor has the same

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

as the surrounding terrain, and is not as dark as the

lunar mare The lunar maria (; singular: mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient asteroid impacts on the far side on the Moon that triggered volcanic activity on the opposite (near) side. They were dubbed , Latin for 'seas' ...

surface to the north and west. Attached to the exterior of the eastern rim is Proclus E, a merged double-crater formation. Proclus lies to the east across the

Palus Somni Palus Somni (Latin ''palūs somnī'' "Marsh of Sleep") is an area on the Moon of relatively level but somewhat uneven terrain that lies along the northeastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis and the Sinus Concordiae. It has selenographic coordinate ...

, or Marsh of Sleep.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * Impact craters on the Moon {{Craters on the Moon: C-F