In fact the oldest extant record of an astronomer using a telescope as an astronomical instrument is a drawing of the moon made by Thomas Harriot on 26 th July 1609. Selenography was first made possible by the invention of the telescope in Middelburg in Holland in 1608. The person who chose to name the selenographical feature after astronomers was the Jesuit mathematician, astronomer and physicist Giovanni Battista Riccioli who was born 17 th April 1598. So selenographical features are what someone who is not a pendent pedant like me would probably refer to incorrectly as geographical features of the moon.

Selenography is moon-writing from Selene the Greek goddess of the moon and graphos. Now geography is a Greek word that literally means earth-writing from geo meaning earth and graphos meaning writing. Don’t worry my spell checker just asked the same question. If you have ever looked at a map of the moon you might have noticed that many of the selenographical features are named after astronomers and you might just have asked yourself how come? At this point several of my readers are probably thinking what in the name of all that is holy is selenographical.

Lunark name