Home Equipment Moon Nebulae Galaxies

StarCo by Ludo Coppens                                        © 2014-2023                                   ludo.coppens(at)kineco.be

Select a sinus by clicking on the name. Move the mouse over the full scale image of the larger region to show names of prominent surface features and additional data: depth from rim to crater floor and diameter, taken from the Times Atlas of the Moon (Ed. H.A.G. Lewis, Times Newspapers Ltd., 1969; charts available online at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LAC/) and from Virtual Moon Atlas (Christian Legrand & Patrick Chevalley).


 Aestuum

 Asperitatis

 Honoris

 Iridium

 Lunicus

 Medii

 Roris


A sinus (ENG: bay) is a semicircular or crescent-like extension of a mare. Origin is the impact of a rather large body on the rim of the mare-forming depression, resulting in a crater sloping downward into the depression. Subsequently mare lavas overflow the lower lying crater rim, leaving the higher half as a mountainous edge to the bay.

(At right: Sinus Iridium, taken from orbit; © NASA)