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Getting to know
the Moon The
phases of the Moon actually make it easy to learn your way around our
nearest neighbour. Because the craters and mountains show up
particularly well when they are close to the terminator, or shadow
line, you can study a new area each night andget to know a small area
at a time. After a while you will get to know the major features and
recognise them evan when the illumination is different. Our guide takes you through the evening phases of the Moon, starting with a thin crescent, but you can start at any point depending on when you happen to be looking. The phases after full Moon are best seen in the morning sky, so they are less often viewed with that illumination, but the features are the same – the only difference is that the light comes from the opposite direction. The seven seas? First of all, however, get to know the major dark 'seas' that are most prominent at full Moon. There are actually nine of them, or rather eight seas and one ocean, as shown here. Once you have picked these out, you have a basic framework into which you can insert individual features. Even the Moon's southern highlands have a few distinctive features, though they are not as obvious as the seas. They will be described as we come to them. There is just one bright feature marked on this view – the bright crater Tycho. For a map showing several hundred features, go to our interactive Moon map. You can see a visualisation of the Moon as it is right now by going to this NASA website which shows the binocular view from the northern hemisphere, or this version which gives the view as seen through a telescope that inverts the view.  The Moon's major features | |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maintained by SPA Webmaster: Last modified 6 November 2008 |