page_title: Claudia (crater)
hierarchical_section_title: Claudia (crater)
caption_attribution_description: Claudia crater, Vesta. An arrow has been added to the image to point out the crater, which is quite small (equal to the width of the arrow). Original caption: HAMO and LAMO images of Claudia crater Download Image › Full Size September 4, 2012 These Dawn framing camera (FC) images of Vesta show Claudia crater at both HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) and LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) resolutions. The left image is the HAMO image and the right image is the LAMO image. To find Claudia crater use the two relatively large degraded craters that form the figure of eight shape in the bottom left of the LAMO image. On the middle right rim of these craters there is a small crater. About 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) to the bottom right of this crater is Claudia, which is 0.7 kilometers (0.4 miles) in diameter. The LAMO image is approximately three times better spatial resolution than the HAMO image. In images with higher spatial resolutions smaller objects can be better distinguished. Claudia was chosen to anchor the coordinate system for Vesta that is used in the scientific investigations of the Dawn team. Claudia was chosen for this because it is a small crater, which is reasonably easy to find, near Vesta’s equator. These images are located in Vesta’s Oppia quadrangle, just south of Vesta’s equator. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained the left image with its framing camera on Oct. 25, 2011. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 700 kilometers (435 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 63 meters (207 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the HAMO (high-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the mission. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained the right image with its framing camera on April 1, 2012. This image was taken through the camera’s clear filter. The distance to the surface of Vesta is 272 kilometers (169 miles) and the image has a resolution of about 19 meters (62 feet) per pixel. This image was acquired during the LAMO (low-altitude mapping orbit) phase of the mission.
context_page_description: Claudia is a small crater that defines the prime meridian of asteroid 4 Vesta in the coordinate system used by the Dawn mission team, NASA, and the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, though it is not accepted by the IAU as a whole. It is located at 1.6°S and 4.0°W.
  Claudia was chosen because it is small, sharply defined, easy to find, and near the equator. The prime meridian runs 4° to the west. This results in a more logical set of mapping quadrants than the IAU coordinate system, which drifts over time due to an error in calculating the position of the pole, and is based on the 200 km Olbers Regio, which is so poorly defined that it is not even visible to the Dawn spacecraft.
  The crater was named after the Roman Vestal Virgin Claudia on 2011 September 30.
context_section_description: Claudia is a small (700 meter) crater that defines the prime meridian of asteroid 4 Vesta in the coordinate system used by the Dawn mission team, NASA, and the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, though it is not accepted by the IAU as a whole. It is located at 1.6°S and 4.0°W.
  Claudia was chosen because it is small, sharply defined, easy to find, and near the equator. The prime meridian runs 4° to the west. This results in a more logical set of mapping quadrants than the IAU coordinate system, which drifts over time due to an error in calculating the position of the pole, and is based on the 200 km Olbers Regio, which is so poorly defined that it is not even visible to the Dawn spacecraft.
  The crater was named after the Roman Vestal Virgin Claudia on 2011 September 30.
caption: Claudia crater (arrow, image at right) in an image of Vesta taken by Dawn at an altitude of 272 km, shown in the context of the image at left taken from 700 km.
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