[MtnClimber]

To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[Billthedrill]

...the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel

You're not gonna find the secret Nazi base that way.

[DFG]

[Menehune56]

[Nateman]

The Soviet Union took pictures of the far side first. They used American film to do it. It was the same film from the American balloons they shot down floating over their territory .

[farm_kid]

It appears the western hemisphere was processed separately from the eastern. You can see the vertical mosaic seam in the center toward the bottom. Observe that the maria in the east appear to be raised instead of sunk.

By doing nothing more than simply rotating the image 180 degrees, what was raised before is now sunk, and what was sunk is now raised. It's kind of an interesting effect.

[Paal Gulli]

A buddy of mine once tried to goad me into an argument by telling me the moon doesn’t have a dark side.

I countered that it most certainly did because one side is always dark. It just isn’t the same side that was dark was a second ago.

Then I blew his mind and told him the moon isn’t earth’s only natural satellite, it’s just the only one we choose to call ‘a moon.”