Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is quite lovely, with the lunar crater Aristarchus at its center.

The names of lunar craters form an interesting study. Did you know that there is a crater named Beer, for example? Nice place for a pub, when lunar tourism finally gets going.

NRO fans will be disappointed to learn that there is no crater Goldberg (though there is a Goldschmidt). There’s no Buckley, Brookhiser, Lowry, O’Beirne, Lopez, Ponnuru, or Derb, either. There is a Miller, though—so I guess J.J. will have to be the lunar representative for all of us.

Papo-cons will be glad to know there’s a Lemaître, but creation-cons will be dismayed to see Darwin at lunar 20.2S 69.5W. (That’s a big one, too—120km across.)

Political Correctness came too late for the naming of lunar features, though no doubt there is a campaign about this operating somewhere. (I mean, we could always re-name them.) Most craters are named after DWMs. There’s a scattering of Arabs and Chinese, but very few Hispanics—no Garcia, no Rodriguez. Someone alert La Raza.

There is a complete gazeteer of lunar names here.