The Moon

This picture of the moon was taken on June 3, 1998 with Adam Maloof and Cindy Blaha.

The three large maria in this picture appear to be Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillatatis, and Mare Fecunditatis. The smaller circular Mare below it is then probably Mare Crisium. That would make the large white spot on the left the crater langrenus. The moon was rather large this night and so there is not a lot of shadowing to show the craters well. However, this is a beatiful picture of several large Maria.

Some general facts about the moon for those of you who may not know. The Moon revolves around the earth on a 27.3 day cycle. We always see the same side of the moon because it is in a synchronous orbit. This essentially means that its spin is equal to its orbit around the earth. Essentially this means that the time it takes for the moon to travel completely around its axis is 27.3 days.


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To see some beautiful moon images I took in the spring of 1997


This page was compiled by Michele Nichols on June 10, 1998.