MENELAUS CRATER

How to find the impact at the end of one of the longest rays on the Moon

Many well-known craters are famous for being at the center of complicated systems of rays. When they were formed, Copernicus, Tycho, and Aristarchus all splashed bright rays of debris huge distances across the lunar surface. Elsewhere on the Moon, smaller, lesser-known craters have systems of rays too, and one of them, Menelaus, is the source of possibly one of the longest and brightest rays on the Moon.

Menelaus is small, just 27 kilometers (17 miles) across and barely three kilometers (1.9 miles) deep, but when the Moon’s phase is just right, it’s easily visible in binoculars and small telescopes. Slightly oval in shape, it lies on the edge of the low Montes Haemus, a curving mountain range that can be found on the southern shore of the Sea of Serenity.