Richardson (lunar crater) explained

Coordinates:	31.1°N 100.5°W
Diameter:	141 km
Depth:	Unknown
Colong:	262
Eponym:	Owen W. Richardson

Richardson is a large lunar impact crater located on the Moon's far side, just behind the eastern limb. It lies to the south of the huge walled plain Harkhebi, and to the east-southeast of the crater Vestine. Just to the northeast is Szilard, and to the southeast is Artamonov.

A substantial portion of the crater is overlain by Maxwell, which lies across the rim to the southwest. The northeastern rim of Maxwell reaches the approximate midpoint of Richardson, and together with the outer rampart covers nearly half the interior floor. The remainder of the rim of Richardson is worn and eroded, with Richardson W intruding into the northwestern rim and Richardson E lying along the eastern side.

The surviving interior floor of Richardson is relatively level, but marked with a number of small craterlets. The rim and interior floor is covered by a number of wispy deposits from the Giordano Bruno impact, located just to the north-northeast.

Prior to formal naming in 1979 by the IAU,^[1] this crater was known as Crater 114.^[2]

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Richardson.

Richardson	Latitude	Longitude	Diameter
E	31.9° N	103.6° E	22 km
W	33.5° N	98.3° E	23 km

References

Book: Andersson . L. E. . Whitaker . E. A. . Ewen Whitaker . 1982 . NASA Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature . NASA RP-1097 .
Web site: Blue . Jennifer . July 25, 2007 . Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature . . 2007-08-05 .
Book: Bussey . B. . Ben Bussey . Spudis . P. . Paul Spudis . 2004 . The Clementine Atlas of the Moon . . New York . 978-0-521-81528-4 .
Book: Cocks . Elijah E. . Cocks . Josiah C. . 1995 . Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature . Tudor Publishers . 978-0-936389-27-1 .
Web site: McDowell . Jonathan . July 15, 2007 . Lunar Nomenclature . . 2007-10-24 .
Menzel. D. H.. Minnaert. M.. Levin. B.. Dollfus. A.. Bell. B.. Report on Lunar Nomenclature by the Working Group of Commission 17 of the IAU. 10.1007/BF00171763. Space Science Reviews. 12. 2. 136–186. 1971. 1971SSRv...12..136M. 122125855.
Book: Moore , Patrick . Patrick Moore . 2001 . On the Moon . . 978-0-304-35469-6 .
Book: Price , Fred W. . 1988 . The Moon Observer's Handbook . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-33500-3 .
Book: Rükl , Antonín . Antonín Rükl . 1990 . Atlas of the Moon . . 978-0-913135-17-4 .
Book: Webb , Rev. T. W. . Thomas William Webb . 1962 . Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes . 6th revised . Dover . 978-0-486-20917-3 .
Book: Whitaker , Ewen A. . Ewen Whitaker . 1999 . Mapping and Naming the Moon . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-62248-6 .
Book: Wlasuk , Peter T. . 2000 . Observing the Moon . Springer . 978-1-85233-193-1 .

Notes and References

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5027 Richardson
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LunarFarsideCharts/LFC-1%201stEd/LFC-1%202ndEd/LFC-1A/ Lunar Farside Chart (LFC-1A)