Nonius is a

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 depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...

. It is located in the rugged southern highlands on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

's near side. It was named after 16th century Portuguese

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

Pedro Nunes Pedro Nunes (; Latin: ''Petrus Nonius''; 1502 – 11 August 1578) was a Portuguese mathematician, cosmographer, and professor, probably from a New Christian (of Jewish origin) family.Leitão, Henrique, "Para uma biografia de Pedro Nunes: O ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

ized as ''Nonius''. The northwestern side and about half the interior floor are overlain by the rim and outer

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * LAPD Rampart Division, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department ** Rampart scandal, a blanket ter ...

of the walled plain

Walther Walther () is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German '' Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was ...

. About half its diameter to the southeast is the smaller crater

Kaiser Kaiser ( ; ) is the title historically used by German and Austrian emperors. In German, the title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (). In English, the word ''kaiser'' is mainly applied to the emperors ...

, and slightly farther to the south lies Fernelius. The surviving rim of this crater has been damaged by multiple impacts, including the merged pair of Nonius K and Nonius L across the northern rim. The surviving outline is more

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is de ...

al in shape than round. The interior floor has an uneven surface, with low ridges and a crater-formed gouge in the western half.

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 Nonius.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{Commons category, Nonius (crater) Impact craters on the Moon