Clavius (crater)
lunar impact crater
Clavius is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon and the largest crater on the visible near side. T. W. Webb described it as "one of the grandest cavities in the Moon, though ill-placed for observation." It is "tolerably circular" and "encompassed by a wall damaged by successive explosions". When on the terminator, Clavius can be discerned with the naked eye. This crater is a key topographic attraction of the rugged southern highlands of the Moon, positioned to the south of the prominent ray crater Tycho. A ray from Tycho crosses the Clavius basin from north to south.
This formation is named for the German mathematician Christopher Clavius (1537-1612). His name was included as "Clavius Soc. I." in the lunar nomenclature of the Italian astronomer Giovanni B. Riccioli in 1651. The "Soc. I." was later dropped.
“Clavius (crater)” enters the record as lunar impact crater. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Clavius, crater and lunar can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1099137. Authority coordinates are -58.620, -14.730. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1537, 1612 and 1651.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clavius (crater)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.