What do you see when you look at the full moon? The old man’s face? A rabbit (could it be the Energizer Bunny)? Green cheese?
Image courtesty NASA’s photojournal website.
Grab a pair of binoculars and take a look at the moon over the next few days. The moon will be full on Sunday, bright and high a few hours after sunset, an easy target for binoculars or a small telescope.
Even with the unaided eye it is plain to see that the moon is not featureless. Ancient astronomers noted differences between the regions of the lunar face that appear darker and those that appear brighter. The dark regions have come to be called mare (pronounced mahr-ey, with accent on the first syllable), which is Latin for sea. The brighter regions are the lunar highlands.
I always see a bunny when I look at the moon. The bunny is sketched out by the lunar maria (seas, plural, again with accent on the first syllable), with the highlands providing background contrast. My moon bunny stands upright and faces to my left when the moon is overhead, but he lays on his back when full moon when it is setting.
Mare Crisium (the sea of storms) is perhaps the easiest mare to spot. It is the smaller, almost perfectly round mare that appears on the upper, right side of the moon. Mare Crisium doesn’t make any notable part of the moon bunny.
Moon bunny’s ears are made of two large, joined-together maria just next to Mare Crisium: Mare Foecunditatis (the sea of fertility) on the right and Mare Tranquillitatis (the sea of tranquility) just next to it on the left.
The mare that makes the bunny’s head and holds up his ears is Mare Serenitatis (the sea of serenity). Mare Imbrium (the sea of rains) and other large maria, all blended together, make the bunny’s body and legs. Can you see the bunny now?
One of the several famous large craters on the moon is at the lower edge of Mare Imbrium: the carter Copernicus. Copernicus stands out as a white spot on the bunny’s body.
Another famous lunar crater is visible in the bright area on the lower portion of the moon’s face: the crater Tycho. Tycho is larger than Copernicus, and it stands out even in the lunar highlands because of the long, white rays that streak away from it.
Twelve men have walked on the moon. This week marks the 36th anniversary of Apollo 16, the second to last of NASA’s Apollo moon program.
On April 20, 1972 the lunar module Orion landed on the moon carrying Mission Commander John Young (9th man on the moon) and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke (10th man on the moon). Both men cruised the lunar surface on foot and in their lunar rover for thee days while Command Module Pilot Thomas Mattingly orbited overhead in the command module, named Casper.
Apollo 16 landed behind the bunny’s ears, in the bright expanse of lunar highland between Mare Tranquillitatis (where Apollo 11 landed and Neil Armstrong said “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”) and the crater Tycho.
Image courtesty A NASA’s Apollo landing website. Click for larger image. This map is rotated about 45 degrees clockwise compared to the image of the moon above.
Even if you look close you won’t be able to see the American flags (among other debris) left behind by the Apollo moon walkers. But if you believe that the moon landings were a hoax, proof is on the way. With the launch of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later this year, close-up pictures of the moon’s surface — including the Apollo landing sites — will soon be available.
Look for a new post on or about April 27.
