Just south of the Montes Caucasus are the very dramatic northern peaks of the Montes Appenninus. At the top of the image is the shadow filled crater Autolycus (41km dia.) and due south of that, in the shadow of the montes is the Apollo 15, Hadley Rille base. Further south is the crater Conon (22km) with Aratus (10km) to the upper right of Conon. To the lower right from Autolycus there’s the Rimae Fresnel. Just to the right of them is a shadow filled crater that appears to be sitting on top of a mountain. This is Santos-Dumont (8km) a 2km deep crater with Promontorium Fresnel just to the upper right of it casting a spectacular shadow back towards the Rimae. Below this crater is a double peaked mountain with the brighter peak on the right being Mons Hadley, a grand 4800m high mountain. The reader is encouraged to identify all the peaks and features between Santos-Dumont and Conon using something like LROC Quick Map or Virtual Moon Atlas. It is a very rich area.
The large mare to the right is Mare Serenitatus. Along the south shoreline, at the bottom of this image, you can see more rimae, the Rimae Sulpicius Gallus. Above this are three parallel vertical “wrinkle ridges” or dorsa with Dorsum Von Cotta on the right, Dorsum Owen above and a bit left of it and finally Dorsum Gast on the left near the shore. On the southern end of Dorsum Owen, the shortest of these ridges, is a very strange and unique feature called Vallis Krishna combined with Rima Sung-Mai and on the left end Yoshi. You will need a good steady sky and high magnification for this feature as it is only 3km across and 2km high. I recommend visiting Vallis Krishna on the-moon.us/wiki website first to understand this area. It is well worth the time spent.
Lastly, Dorsum Von Cotta points due north to a white spot that is an ejecta blanket for the small crater Linné in the middle of the ejecta. This is the crater that had been observed in antiquity as ranging from 8 to 10km diameter on different atlases, but was reported missing by J.F.J Schmidt in 1866 at the National Observatory of Athens using the 158mm refractor, then the largest instrument they had. After much controversy and argument (that did include some observations!) it was been proven to be a 3km diameter crater, which is difficult to see from Earth again requiring a good steady sky and high magnifications. Go and see for yourself, it’s a delightful challenge!
