Observing the Moon
What can you see on the Moon?
Leader’s Role Participants’ Role
(Anticipated)
MATERIALS:
Copies of the Skywatcher’s Guide to the Moon for visitors. You may want to copy your
club information on the back of the handouts. The master for the handout can be found
below. You may print out and copy as many as you need.
To Do:
Hand out the Moon map guides.
To Say:
(Pointing South) Face south and
look up – can you find the There it is!
Moon?
Participants study
Compare the Moon in the sky to Moon and Moon
the large Moon map on the map handout.
handout.
The Moon map shows the side of
the Moon that is always facing
us. Answers.
How much of the Moon in the
sky is lit up right now?
Now look at the map. You will only see the features on the part of
the Moon that is lit up.
When you look at the Moon through the telescopes tonight, you
may need to turn the map to match your view of the Moon in the
eyepiece.
Some telescopes will flip your view as if you were looking at the
Moon in a mirror. The small photo of the Moon on your handout
shows a mirror image of the Moon.
© 2008 Astronomical Society of the Pacific www.astrosociety.org
Copies for educational purposes are permitted.
Additional astronomy activities can be found here: http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov
SKYWATCHER’S GUIDE TO THE MOON
Impact! What do you see on the Moon?
The Moon’s cratered surface Face south and look up in the sky.
tells a violent story. Bright Can you find the Moon?
areas are ancient crust that
make up the highlands. Dark Compare the Moon in the sky to the large Moon map
areas are newer regions below. The Moon map shows the side of the Moon that
of lava that formed after is always facing us. How much of the Moon in the sky
asteroid impacts. is lit up right now? You will only see the features on the
part of the Moon that is lit up.
Copernicus Through a telescope, you may
This crater (left) is easy to spot. need to turn the map to match
It formed about 800 million your view of the Moon in the
years ago, and is 57 miles (92 eyepiece. Some telescopes will
km) wide. Note central peaks flip the image, so the Moon
and terraced walls, caused by might look like the image to the
impact. right through a telescope.
Mare Serenitatis
The Sea of Serenity is
Aristarchus solid lava, some 380
Young crater. So miles (610 km) across.
bright that Sir
William Herschel
thought it was an
active volcano.
Mare Crisium
Apollo 15 The Sea of Crisis
Kepler is about 340 miles
Small version of wide (550 km)
Copernicus Apollo 17 and visible to the
naked eye.
Grimaldi
Lava-filled crater is Apollo 12, 14
one of the darkest Apollo 11
spots you can see on
the Moon. It’s 145 miles Apollo 16
wide (233 km).
Mare Tranquillitatis
The Sea of Tranquility is a
smooth plain filled with
Mare Humorum once-molten lava that
The Sea of Moisture is about welled up from below after
220 miles (350 km) across. an impact billions of years
You can spot it with the Tycho ago. The first humans to
naked eye. With a telescope, Young crater best seen during a full Moon. Rays of walk on the Moon, Apollo
you might notice two craters bright material are ejecta blasted out of the crust when 11 astronauts, landed near
along its edge. a large asteroid struck about 109 million years ago. the edge.
SOURCES: NASA; ADVANCED SKYWATCHING; CAMBRIDGE ATLAS OF ASTRONOMY; DK VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
Photos: James Scala. Layout and text for Moon map used with permission: Robert Roy Britt/SPACE.com.
NASA Night Sky Network (nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov) administered by Astronomical Society of the Pacific (www.astrosociety.org)
