daily pictures of Earth's moon

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Copyright: Lunar Picture of the Day

image by Jérôme Grenier, Paris, FranceWhat is that crater behind Moretus? Wait, that’s not Moretus! Its the smaller look-alike Schomberger. This image captures the often overlooked area just east of Moretus, on the eastern side of the lunar prime meridian. As with most places near the southern limb, navigational beacons are necessary, and Boguslawsky with [...]

image by Howard Eskildsen, Ocala, FloridaDuring much of the lunar month, many imagers strive for high res closeups of individual features. But at full Moon, if they image at all, observers tend to make mosaics of the entire Moon. Howard has found a middle ground of broad regional imaging that provides a treasure hunt [...]

Clementine topo image from Paul Spudis and telescopic image from Tom BashThe mountains near the south pole are among the highest and most dramatic on the Moon, and they are often hard to identify. The most clear chart is still Ewen Whitaker’s which was published in 1954 in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. [...]

south up drawing by Phil MorganFra Mauro Is a very old crater. That may be stating the obvious, but it is still one of the most interesting of lunar objects to study,draw or photograph. The sketch shows well an effect that I nicknamed the ‘Pearl Necklace’. This spectacle is produced for only a very short [...]

illustration from Chang’eIt should not be a surprise that one of the early examples of the success of the Chang’e lunar orbiter should be of the crater Wan-Hoo. One of only nine features with a Chinese name, there is, however, no evidence that Wan-Hoo ever existed. But the crater does. It is about 52 km [...]

image by Paolo R. Lazzarotti, Massa, Italy.This is a mysterious image. Its dark with dozens of small to medium sized craters, lots of lineations and a couple of odd knobs - do you see them? First, the area. At upper right with a dot of brightness for its central peak is Pitiscus, with Hommel [...]

map by Tobias Mayer from A History of Lunar Studies by Ernst BothFor 65 years this small map was the best in the world. The 7.5″ diameter map was made in 1749 but not published until 1775, 13 years after his death, and a larger 18″ version of the same map didn’t appear until 106 [...]

Apollo 17 Station 5 panorama image made by Hans Nyberg; original images from Eugene Cernan.The blast off of the Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger from the Taurus-Littrow Valley, 35 years ago today, ended the first episode of human spaceflight beyond Earth. Apollo was the most audacious exploration in human history, for the astronauts went far [...]

image by Wes HigginsI admit there isn’t a lot new to say about this area, but this is a gorgeous view. We have had LPOD’s of Werner and the very bright craterpit on its lower wall, and of Aliacensis (bottom left), but apparently not any/many of Apianus (top right). The high resolution of Wes’ image [...]

Chang’e image by China National Space Administration

The China National Space Administration is quietly releasing a few lunar images as Chang’e begins its year or more of mapping the Moon. This image, an example of creating a topo image map, and a detailed illustration of how the first released image was mosaicked together (perhaps in response to the ignorant flap about it being a fake) are at a CNSA site that does not have an English page. Click on the [12.09] entry of the index table at...

map by Johann Heinrich Mädler, 1834The most important lunar documents of the 19th century are unavailable online and are rarely found even in large libraries. In 1834, Beer and Mädler published the first quadrant of their monumental chart Mappa Selenographica, and their book, Der Mond, followed in 1837. The book was never translated into English [...]

image by Павел Пресняков (Pavel Presnyakov), Kiev UkraineIn detective stories criminals always return to the scene of the crime, and lunar imagers also return to their favorite haunts. Pavel’s sunrise image of the area west of Theophilus was the March 27 LPOD, and his sunset view (above) was yesterday’s mystery image. The low illumination of [...]

Hint: the image area is shown hereThis image is the most difficult to identify that LPOD has ever published. I won’t spoil your fun in trying to recognize it by saying where it is, who took it, or when - all of that will come out tomorrow, but I will say that its on the [...]

SMART-1 mosaic compiled by Marina Ellouzi of the Paris-Meudon Observatory. Image from ESAThe lunar north pole is the least glamorous one, lacking the deep craters and massive mountain blocks (the South Pole-Aitken Basin rim) that make the opposite pole so rugged. The reason for the lack of dramatic topography is the presence of another large [...]

image by Stefan Lammel, Uxbridge, England. Mairan is the crater at lower right.There are 111 named lunar rilles and most are challenging to observe and image. Like craters, most attention is focused on just a few famous ones (Hadley, Ariadaeus, Hyginus, Petavius), and the rest are overlooked. One of the difficult ones is the Sharp [...]

Left: Flying over Orientale - Kaguya image from YouTube, and Right: topomapping from Chang’eWe live in a glorious time for lunar exploration. Not since Apollo has there been such excitement about exploration of the Moon. The Chinese Chang’e and Japanese Kaguya spacecraft are in orbit around the Moon, acquiring high resolution data that will open [...]

Sheet A6 of the System of Lunar CratersOne detailed, relatively accurate and even official map of the Moon is poorly known and now almost no longer available. I refer to the 44 sheets that accompanied the System of Lunar Craters catalog published in quadrants from 1963 to 1966 at the University of Arizona. I was [...]

images by Jérôme Grenier, Paris, FranceYet another image - actually two - of the vertical pair of northern Greek craters, Aristoteles and Eudoxus. (The nearby horizontal pair of Greeks is Atlas and Hercules.) With nearly a dozen previous LPODs of one or both of this duo what can we say new, other than to admire [...]

images by Brian Kimball, Longmont, ColoradoThe Moon is usually the largest object in the universe that you can easily observe. By large I mean in apparent diameter. But Comet Holmes, still gracing evening skies, was bigger when it and the Moon were photographed with the same scope late last month. These two superposed images give [...]

left image from Apollo 11-37-5438; right image from Mike Wirths Danny Caes has done it again - he has found a 38 year old Apollo 11 image that provides a dramatically different perspective of a well-known feature. I don’t remember ever seeing this image before, and I am sorry I missed it because it gives [...]

image by Stefan Lammel, Uxbridge, England. Is this sheet 1 of a new lunar atlas?Stefan’s mosaic reminds me that I want a new photographic atlas of the Moon. A spiral bound one, about 8.5″ x 11″, for convenient use at the telescope and on a desk. I know what exists, and none satisfies me - [...]

image by Jérôme Grenier, Paris, France.Floor-fractured craters are the most interesting ones on the Moon because of their concentration of rilles, dark halo craters and uplifted centers. While some have easily visible rilles (Posidonius and Gassendi, for example) others have such narrow rilles that they are rarely imaged. Cleomedes is an example of the latter, [...]

image by Wes HigginsThere is no doubt that spacecraft orbiting the Moon can take higher resolution images than amateurs on Earth using backyard telescopes; but spacecraft can’t outdo Wes for stunning beauty. Posidonius is a favorite crater because of the tilted floor, criss-crossed with rilles, and the lighting of this image gives a hyper-realistic feel [...]

full res image from Chang’e lunar orbiterThe full resolution version of the Chang’e first image has appeared on the Planetary Society website (make sure to hit “Click to enlarge” button at bottom of image there), allowing more marveling of the capability of the orbiter. This full scale small piece from the entire image shows [...]

image by China National Space AgencyUPDATE: Full resolution image! Make sure to hit “Click to enlarge” button at bottom. Looking as unfamiliar as a piece of the farside, the first image of the Moon taken by China’s Chang’e orbiter stretches from dark-floored Hanno H to Helmholtz at bottom left. This view of the southeast [...]