ONE of Northwich’s sons has made it to the stars after a crater on Mars was named after him.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named a 67km-wide Martian crater after Charles Arthur Cross, an amateur astronomer who lived in London Road.

Mr Cross, who died in 1980 at the age of 60, wrote books with Sir Patrick Moore and mapped the moon, Mars and Mercury.

NASA co-credits Mr Cross, and fellow astronmer Eric Burgess, with introducing the term ‘interplanetary probe’.

His daughter-in-law Jenny said: “We are so proud of him.

“We discovered that the crater had been named after him on the Internet by accident and we were astonished.

“He would have been thrilled.”

As his day job, Mr Cross was an industrial chemist for ICI.

He was married to Margaret, a mayor of Northwich, who died in 1981, and they had one son, Nigel, who lives with Jenny in Derbyshire.

Mr Cross had his own observatory in his back garden, which he built himself.

His work with Sir Patrick Moore saw the UK’s favourite astronomer pay many a visit to Northwich.

Jenny said: “He knew Sir Patrick Moore and wrote books with him and he came to their house.

“He stayed with Nigel’s family on many occasions.

“Nigel met him and has got books that he gave him as a child – he said he was a very nice man.”

When Jodrell Bank was being built, Mr Cross went along and met its founder Sir Bernard Lovell.

The Cross crater on Mars, which is listed in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, can be found at the coordinates 30.2deg south and 157.8deg west.