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Updated: May 14, 2025
Since the erection of the great Lick telescope on Mount Hamilton, our knowledge of the details of some of the lunar clefts has been greatly increased, as in the case of the Ariadaeus cleft, and many others. Professor W.H. Pickering, also, at Arequipa, has made at that ideal astronomical site many observations which, when published, will throw more light upon their peculiar characteristics.
It varies considerably in breadth and depth, but throughout its course over the plain, between Ariadaeus and Silberschlag, it can be followed without difficulty in a very small telescope. A few miles E. of Ariadaeus it sends out a short branch, running in a S.W. direction, which can be traced as a fine white line under a moderately high sun.
The coarser parts of this object are easily visible in small telescopes, and may be glimpsed under suitable conditions with a 2 inch achromatic. Commencing a little W. of a small crater N. of Agrippa, it crosses, as a very delicate object, a plain abounding in low ridges and shallow valleys, and runs nearly parallel to the eastern extension of the Ariadaeus rill.
A few miles N. of Agrippa stands a small crater; at a point W. of which the Hyginus cleft originates. SILBERSCHLAG. A very brilliant crater, 8 or 9 miles in diameter, connected with the great mountain range just referred to. The Ariadaeus cleft cuts through the range a few miles N. of it. This neighbourhood at sunrise presents a grand spectacle.
On the W., at a distance of a few miles, runs the prominent mountain range, extending northwards nearly up to the E. flank of Julius Caesar, which bounds the E. side of the great Ariadaeus plain. Between this rocky barrier and Agrippa is a very noteworthy enclosure containing much minute detail and a long straight ridge resembling a cleft.
The following is one illustration out of many which might be quoted. At a point in its course, nearly due north of the ring-plain Agrippa, the great Ariadaeus cleft sends out a branch which runs into the well-known Hyginus cleft, reminding one, as Dr. Klein remarks, of two rivers connected in the shortest way by a canal.
E. of this pair a third distinct cleft, originating at a point on the coast-line about midway between Ariadaeus and Dionysius, ends near the same place on the border. There is a fourth cleft extending from the N. side of a little bay N. of Ariadaeus across the Mare to a point N.W. of the more northerly of the three craters N. of Ritter.
On reaching the E. wall, it turns somewhat more to the N., becomes still coarser and more irregular in breadth, and ultimately expands into a wide valley on the N.E. It is connected with the Ariadaeus cleft by a branch which leaves the latter at an acute angle on the plain E. of Silberschlag, and joins it about midway between its origin N. of Agrippa and Hyginus.
ARIADAEUS. A bright little crater of polygonal shape, with another crater of about one-third the area adjoining it on the N.W., situated on the rocky E. margin of the Mare Tranquilitatis, N.E. of Ritter. A short cleft runs from it towards the latter, but dies out about midway. A second cleft begins near its termination, and runs up to the N.E. wall of Ritter.
About midway between Ariadaeus and Silberschlag it exhibits a duplication for a short distance, first detected by Webb. DE MORGAN. A brilliant little crater, 4 miles in diameter, on the plain S. of the Ariadaeus cleft. CAYLEY. A very deep bright crater, with a dark interior, N. of the last, and more than double its diameter. There is a second crater between this and the cleft.
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