The Moon

Sites

Bill Arnett's Moon site Images, science fiction, maps, Chinese legends, links.
Keith's Moon Page Some interesting tidbits. Legends and the meanings Moon sayings, etc.
Moon Myths From University Corporation for Atmospheric Researcher---whoever they are.

Papers

The papers are those I've read and/or want to keep track of. They are just in order reading: last to first.

Benn, C. R. (2001) The Moon and the Origin of Life. A review of whether the Moon aided the development of life. The p.~2 problem is in AAP.

Moon Images

Some of the links below are broken. Those images I feel doubtful about posting since the permission or public domain status is unclear. The thumbnail images are linked to larger images where more information and full credit are given.

Moon diagrams
1. Alien Werewolf.
2. Tilt of the Moon's orbit.
3. Moon orbit 2.
4. Intercalary lunar months.
5. Some Moon numbers.
6. Moon phases.
7. Earth's umbra and penumbra.
8. Lunar eclipse diagram.
9. Reddened Moon during a total lunar eclipse.
10. A annular solar eclipse.
11. Lunar month and lunar sidereal period.
12. Moon and Earth interiors compared.
  Credit: NASA's Lunar Prospector education site.
Moon Maps
1. Galileo's Moon map, 1609dec03.
2. Moon map with names.
3. A map of the NASA and Soviet probe landing sites.
  Luna (Soviet) and Surveyor (NASA) were uncrewed landers. The 6 Apollo landings were all crewed as everyone knows. 12 humans have walked on the Moon---but none since 1972!
  The map table shows what the arrows mean. A pity NASA didn't bother to enlarge the names of the features. Recall the equatorial diameter of the Moon is 3476 km. This sets the scale.
  The darker areas are the maria. Their names are almost legible.
  The big rayed crater south of Mare Imbrium is Copernicus. East of Copernicus is a smaller rayed crater, Kepler. Tycho is the rayed crater that is hard to make out on this map, but Surveyor 7 landed on its rim.
  Credit: NASA.
4. Mercator Moon map.
  All the big maria are on the near side.
  Oceanus Procellarium is the big mare. Orientale Basin is to the south-west of Oceanus Procellarium. Mare Tranquillitatis is hind end (but not the tail or feet) of the rabbit. Mare Moscoviense is due east of Mare Tranquillitatis and rather inconspicuous.
  One can see the maria cover only a small part of the lunar surface: i.e., about 15 % (HI-140).
  Credit: JPL's map page; download site: a hidden ??? JPL page.
Moon Phases
1. Galileo's Drawing of the Phases of the Moon Credit: Galileo Galilei, Biblioteca Nazionale - Florence, Italy; download source Windows to the Universe.
2. NASA Moon phase images.
Moon from Afar
1. The near side of the Moon. Credit: ?
2. The near side of the Moon. Credit: ?
3. Near side from Apollo 11, 1969jul21, taken on return leg.
  Credit: NASA.
4. A side view from the Apollo missions???
  Lower half is the Earth-facing side (the near side); upper half is the far side.??? The large Maria are on the near side only (FMW-168).
  Credit: NASA.
5. The Galileo probe on its way to Jupiter produced this false color image.
  The false colors emphasize the maria and craters and other features. The credit reference gives color meanings in terms of composition. North is at the top.
  The Crater Tycho is near the south. It is not the biggest crater on the Moon, but it is very recognizable because of the rays that radiate from it.
  The rays were produced by the impact: they filaments of ejecta thrown out. They extend halfway around the Moon. These rays would have been erased by subsequent impacts if Tycho were old.
  Tycho may be only of order 100 Myr (Se-448).
  Credit: NASA.
6. The Galileo probe on its way to Jupiter produced this color image.
  This image shows the western hemisphere of the Moon which is the eastern side as seen from Earth (HI-141,143). The widest ring, which one can sort of see, is about 1000 km in diameter. Recall the Moon's equatorial diameter is only 3476 km.
  The largest impactors created weak spots in the lithosphere of the Moon through which lava flowed up to create the maria: i.e., the lava plains. The Orientale Basin is contains a small mare.
  The rings may have been produced by waves that froze in place (SRJ-159).
  The impact probably shook the whole Moon substantially and probably created converging shock waves at the antipodal point where a jumbled WEIRD TERRAIN has been noticed (HI-454).
  The CALORIS BASIN on Mercury is similar to the Orientale Basin and has similar antipodal WEIRD TERRAIN (Se-460).
  Credit: NASA.
7. Near side from Apollo 11, 1969aug01, taken on return leg.
  Credit: NASA
8. View of the Moon's north pole.
  Credit: NASA.
9. Moon and stars.
  Credit: T.A.Rector, I.P.Dell'Antonio /NOAO /AURA/NSF. NOAO gives open permission for educational use. I wonder if Dell'Antonio is my old friend Iain from Harvard 1991--1993.
10. The angular diameter of the Moon at perigee and apogee compared.
  Credit: John Walker's Inconstant Moon page. John Walker has declared this page and its images public domain.
11. Collage with the Moon with a galaxy. Credit: ?
Moonscapes
1. From Lunar Orbiter II, 1966dec18.
  Credit: NASA.
2. From Lunar Orbiter, 1966feb11.
  Credit: NASA.
3. From Apollo 10.
  Credit: NASA.
4. From Apollo 10.
  There is a rille: volcanic flow or a fault line?
  Credit: NASA.
5. From the far side with a brightly rayed crater.
  Credit: NASA.
6. Moonscape from the far side.
  Credit: NASA.
7. Crater 302: a terrraced-walled crater. Apollo 10, 1969may01.
  Crater 302 is the largest crater in the image and it must be pretty big since the curvature of the Moon's limb is visible.
  Crater 302 is a typical large terraced-walled crater.
  1. There is a central peak formed by rebound.
  2. Back falling ejecta provided a flatish floor.
  3. A rim wall produced by excavation plus shock pushing up the rim.
  4. The rim shows terraces which are created by landslides. Even on the Moon, slow erosion from meteoritic impact, moonquakes, and heating-and-cooling expansion and contraction will eventually lead to landslides and slumps.
  5. Ejecta also falls outside the rim to about twice the crater diameter producing an apron which possibly can be descryed.
  6. There may be secondary impacts from the ejecta, but that is is not obvious here. So many later or earlier impacts have riddled the ground.
  See FMW-174 for more details on impacts.
  Credit: NASA.
8. Crater Copernicus.
  Crater Copernicus has a rim diameter of about 90 km and is one of the largest craters on the Moon.
  It is south of Mare Imbrium which is partially seen at the top of image.
  The impactor must have been a few kilometers in diameter (HI-141).
  There is a surrounding of secondary craters. These had lower impact speeds and are sometimes elongated along the direction away from the main crater??? or so it seems to my eye.
  Credit: NASA; download site the Copernicus site of the Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon. These guys have copyrighted their site but the original images are public domain surely.
9. Hadley Rille on the edge of Mare Imbrium.
  Rilles are winding channels often found near the edges of maria and/or originate on craters. They were evidently cut by flowing lava. They may have had solid roofs subsequently collapsed by impacts.
  Hadley Rille was visited by Apollo 15 astronauts and their Moon rover. It reaches a depth of about 400 meters.
  Credit: NASA.
10. Rilles east of Aristarchus Plateau. Apollo 15.
  Rilles are winding channels often found near the edges of maria and/or originate on craters. They were evidently cut by flowing lava. They may have had solid roofs subsequently collapsed by impacts.
  Hadley Rille was visited by Apollo 15 astronauts and their Moon rover. It reaches a depth of about 400 meters.
  Credit: NASA.
11. Pete Conrad of Apollo 12 (1969nov20) finds Surveyor 3 (1967apr20).
  Notice the regolith dust. This powdery dust has been created by sandblasting by small meteorites. The dust (not the regolith) is perhaps a few centimeters thick (Se-445.) The dust is quite glassy and slippery (Ze2002-177).
  The astronauts always landed in the daytime, but the sky looks black because there is no atmosphere to scattering sunlight around.
  Recall the lunar day is as long as the lunar month (29.53059 days on average), and so lunare daytime is about 14.7 days.
  Because of the Moon's small size the horizon seems very near. Perhaps this is not obvious in images, but the astronauts were quite struck by it (PF-103).
  Credit: NASA.
12. Jack Schmitt, his ``dune buggy,'' regolith, and Crater Shorty's edge at the right.
  Notice the regolith dust. This powdery dust has been created by sandblasting by small meteorites. The dust (not the regolith) is perhaps a few centimeters thick (Se-445.) The dust is quite glassy and slippery (Ze2002-177).
  The sandblasting has given much (most???) of the Moon's surface a smooth and soft appearance. There are a few rocks and outcroppings about though. The Moon is not mostly the jangle of broken-up rock pictured by old science fiction stories.
  The astronauts always landed in the daytime, but the sky looks black because there is no atmosphere to scattering sunlight around.
  Recall the lunar day is as long as the lunar month (29.53059 days on average), and so lunar daytime is about 14.7 days.
  Note this is a color picture, but the Moon is not colored: it's black, white, and shades of gray mostly.
  Credit: NASA.
On the Moon
1. An Apollo 11 footprint on the Moon.
  We will go a long way: to the ends of the universe perhaps.
  Credit: NASA.
2. Footprint of Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11.
  Credit: NASA.
Moon and Earth
1. Earthrise from Apollo 11, 1969jul16.
  Credit: NASA .
  A picture which never gets tired: "It is time for you to return to Earth"
  ( Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris ).
2. Earthrise from Apollo 8, 1968dec29.
  Credit: NASA.
3. Earth and Moon from Galileo probe, 1990jan02.
  Credit: NASA.
4. Earth crescent seen from nighttime moon. Apollo 17, 1972dec14.
  Credit: NASA
5. Moonset over the Earth. A NASA Space Shuttle image.
  Credit: NASA.
6. Moon over Earth. A trick shot from the International Space Station.
  Credit: NASA
7. Crescent Moon and Earth.
  Credit: NASA.
Lunar Eclipses
1. Lunar Eclipse at 1/5 mark? From 2000jan20.
2. Lunar Eclipse at 1/2 mark, 2000jan20.
3. Lunar Eclipse at 3/4 mark, 2000jan20.
4. A full lunar eclipse, 2000jan20.
  Credit: NASA. Click on images to see full credit.