Rutherfurd Crater ~ APT Traditional Geocache

The Rutherfurd Crater was named by and for astrophotographer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd who took the first telescopic photographs of the moon. The cache is located along the Allamuchy Pond Trail, located along the grounds of Rutherfurd Hall, one of the last extant large country estates in New Jersey.

Lewis Morris Rutherfurd(November 25, 1816 – May 30, 1892), was the father of Rutherfurd Stuyvesant born Stuyvesant Rutherfurd on September 2, 1843. Lewis was an American lawyer and astronomer. He abandoned his study of law in 1849 to dedicate his leisure to science, particularly astronomy. He performed pioneering work in spectral analysis, and experimented with celestial photography.

Rutherfurd invented instruments for his studies, including the micrometer for measuring photographs, a machine for producing improved ruled diffraction gratings, and the first telescope designed specifically for astrophotography. Rutherfurd's lunar photgraphs were much admired in his day, and he is sometimes listed as a co-author of Richard Proctor's The Moon, for which they were used as illustrations. Proctor referred to Rutherfurd as "the greatest lunar photographer of the age."

The Rutherfurd is a lunar impact crater located entirely within the southern rim of the much larger crater Clavius. The crater Porter is located to the north-northeast of Rutherfurd, on the northeastern rim of Clavius. Rutherfurd forms the larger member in an arcing chain of craters of decreasing size that curves across the floor of Clavius. The craters in this chain do not appear to be the same age, so this formation is most likely random in nature.

The Rutherfurd - Stuyvesant geocache series give an in depth history of this important and distinguished american family and the gilded age in NJ. There are two locations showcased in the geotrail. The Stuyvesant Mansion and Rutherfurd Mansion located within Tranquility Farms massive estate was divided by the construction on interstate 80.