Mare Orientale Coordinates

The Mare Orientale Coordinate System is an alternative to the Mean Earth coordinate system presently in use by the International Astronomical Union and most other parties.

It uses one of the most obvious feature.s on Luna, Mare Orientale, for a "west pole" that is convenient both for terrestrial observers and for Lunar explorers and residents. This eliminates complications associated with a prime meridian that depends on the position of another planetary body, presents a face of positive and consecutive coordinates for the Earth-facing side, and Lunar residents settling on the Earth-facing side would not need to make regular adjustments for crossing the prime meridian heavily, especially as the coordinate system is likely to play a far bigger role for most Lunar residents than it does for most Terrestrial residents.

Criticism

Most parties do not want to make the necessary adjustments to change the prime meridian, and will readily dismiss any attempts to change the existing standard. Many observers are, for that matter, content with large errors in the coordinates for Lunar features.

See Also

• Mean Earth Coordinates

This article is a Selenographical stub. You can help Lunarpedia by expanding it.