Geological Chronicle
Fabry lies just beyond the Moon’s northeastern limb, on the far side. Parts of the area are sometimes brought into view by libration, but observers see the terrain from the edge, with little detail. Fabry overlies the northeast rim of an even larger basin named Harkhebi. Vashakidze is to the west, Petrie to the east and Swann to the north.
The outer rim is heavily worn and eroded, with notches from later impacts. A pair of small craters, including Fabry H, lies along the eastern rim. Smaller craters lie along many parts of the remaining rim. A short, hook-shaped valley cuts across the northwest rim. Only a few rim sections remain relatively intact; the rest is a ring of mountainous terrain.
Sections of the floor are relatively smooth and level, but the northeast quadrant is rough and irregular. A long massif forms the central peak and spans nearly a quarter of the crater’s diameter from west to east. An infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase has been identified on the peak and the northern floor. A small crater sits at the southeast end of the peak, just southeast of the midpoint.
The rest of the floor has been resurfaced and is marked by tiny craterlets and rough ground near the rim. Ray material from the young crater Giordano Bruno, to the south, crosses Harkhebi’s floor and appears in a few faint patches on Fabry’s floor, most notably south of the small crater near the midpoint. Fabry was previously known as Crater 45; the IAU formally named it in 1970.