On names of surface features on the Moon
Keywords:
place names on the Moon, names of moon craters, orthography of proper names, extraterrestrial names
Abstract
On names of surface features on the Moon
Most surface features of the Moon were named after famous people (especially astronomers and physicists); other names were formed from common nouns at the time when the mapping of the Moon had just begun. These latter names remind us that the dark spots on the Moon observable from the Earth were suspected to be bodies of water (seas, lakes and swamps) by the early astronomers. The paper discusses in detail the names of moon craters, mostly named after scientists, including some Hungarian ones. The author also discusses related orthographical problems (transliteration, hyphenation, upper and lower-case letters), presenting the forms suggested by astronomers.
