Birkeland (lunar crater)

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Crater characteristics
Coordinates	30.2° S, 173.9° W
Diameter	82 km
Depth	Unknown
Colongitude	187° at sunrise
Eponym	O. Kristian Birkeland

Birkeland is a lunar impact crater that lies in the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon. This crater is attached to the central waist of the oddly-shaped Van de Graaff crater formation, and may partly account for that crater's figure-8 shape. To the southeast is the large Leibnitz walled-plain.

This crater has not been significantly eroded, and the outer rim is well-defined with a well-terraced inner walls around much of the interior. The rim has a slight inward bulge along the north where it is attached to the Van de Graaff formation. The interior floor is relatively level, except in the southeast weher there is some rough terrain. There is a central peak formation at the mid-point.

[edit] Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to Birkeland crater.