Gerd Waloszek       

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Walking the Moon with my own Photos - Overview

On these pages I "walk the moon" on the basis of my own photos. In other words, I try to name the objects on my lunar photos to get to know the moon better. Maybe these pages will help others to get to know the moon better as well...

On this page, I provide an overview of the "moon walks" and some information about the moon. See alsp page How Small Objects Can You Recognize on the Moon?

Note: See page Books and Software about the Moon for just this.

Overview my Moon Walks

• Crescent of the waxing moon
• Before half moon
• Half moon
• After half moon
• Full moon
• From Half Moon to Full Moon (RX10 M3)
• Sections of moon photos - Part 1
• Sections of moon photos - Part 2
• Moon Landscapes - Part 1
• Moon Landscapes - Part 2
• Moon Alphabet - A-D
• Moon Alphabet - E-J
• Moon Alphabet - K-R
• Moon Alphabet - S-Z

Information about the Moon

Numbers

Elements of the Moon Surface

See also page Moon Landscapes - Part 1 and page page Moon Landscapes - Part 2

Designations of Moon Formations with Short Explanations

*) According to IAU nomenclature (** in part...)

Elements of the Moon Surface - in Brief

• Sea (Mare, pl. Maria): large dark lava plains in the deeper areas
  named after the characteristics of the human soul and weather conditions
• Craters: craters created by the impact of meteorites
  bear the names of famous astronomers, mathematicians and philisophers (back side of the moon: physicists, astronauts)
• Terra (land): brighter areas
  • Lowlands (Sinus = bay, Lacus = lake,...): Rills and valleys
    Naming is unclear to me...
  • Highlands (mountains: Montes = mountains, Rupes,...): heavily cratered higher areas, chain mountains, probably remains of old crater walls
    named after mountains on the earth
• Rays around craters: fragments of bright rock ejected by meteorite impacts

Elements of the Moon Surface - Short Version (According to Spix moonscout, Adapted)

• Sea (Mare, pl. Maria): Craters created by huge meteorite impacts, which were gradually flooded with magma; the magma solidified into basalt lava and causes the dark coloring
• Crater
  • Crater wall plains: Craters with a diameter of 60-300 km
  • Ring mountains: about 20-100 km in size with a rather even and clearly demarcated wall
  • Craters in the actual sense: about 5-60 km in size, mostly round and sharply limited
  • Small craters or crater pits: not larger than 5 km
• Mountains (Montes): mainly to be found at the edges of the seas; remains of mighty crater walls caused by meteorite impacts
• Mountain (Mons): isolated mountains in the seas or oceans
• Valley (Vallis)
  • Crater valleys: straight arrangement of craters that overlap each other
  • Lava valleys: buried former lava caves or crater valleys (river-like character)
  • Collapsed valleys: valleys likely to have formed as a result of the collapse or subsidence of the underlying subsoil layers
• Groove (Rima)
  • Lava rillae: like lava grooves, broken in former lava caves or crater valleys, only smaller
  • Cracks: crevices in the lunar surface caused by lunar quakes or stresses in cooling lava

Elements of the Moon Surface - Long Version (After Spix, Adapted)

Seas and Highlands

Seas (lat. Mare) are largely flat, often circular basins and irregular depressions, which very created by the impact of very large celestial bodies that hit the lunar crust and which were later flooded with dark lava.

Highlands (lat. Terra) are the bright areas of the moon's surface. They used to be considered continents. They are structured like mountains, dotted with countless craters and traversed by valleys, making them the most richly structured lunar surfaces.

Craters, Ring Mountains and Wall Plains

Craters are the most common lunar formations and are usually also caused by meteorite impacts. They are roughly divided into the following classes:

• Craters in the true sense of the word are about 5-60 km in diameter. They are usually round in shape and stand out clearly from the ground. The inner wall is smooth and there is no central mountain.
• Small craters up to 5 km in diameter are called small craters.
• With a diameter of 20-100 km, the ring mountains also have a well preserved and clearly defined wall. The inner slopes are typically terraced, and a central mountain rises above the ground.
• Wall plains are even larger craters with a diameter of up to 300 km. The wall is usually already decayed or covered by later impacts, and the bottom is flooded with lava.

Mountains and Valleys

The "real" mountains (lat. Montes) of the moon usually run along the edges of the moon seas. They are mighty crater walls which were formed during the formation of the moon seas and later partly flooded with lava. They reach heights of up to several thousand meters. In the telescope, the mountains look very rugged due to the shadow cast. In fact, however, they are more comparable to huge hills.

Single standing mountains (lat. Mons) are to be found practically only in the moon seas. These mountains are also peaks of crater walls rising from the lava-covered plains.

Valleys (lat. Vallis) are divided into three types according to their different history:

• Crater valleys: Craters, ring mountains and wall plains are most common on the moon. Crater valleys are linear formations of overlapping impacts. These probably originated from secondary impacts during the formation of the great seas.
• Lava valleys resemble earthly rivers in appearance, have a twisted form and are collapsed former lava rivers.
• Collapse valleys are caused by subsidence or collapse of the underlying rock layers.

Grooves and Furrows

Due to their different origin, grooves (lat. Rima) are divided into different types:

• Lava rillae are like lava valleys, former lava caves.
• Cracks in the moon's surface have been caused by tensions in cooling lava.

The term furrow (lat. Rupes) is equated with a whole series of terms: steep slope, mountain slope, or cliff.
Essentially, two types are to be distinguished:

• Terraces as a result of subsidence in the marginal zones of the seas and
• Remains of ring mountains or crater segments.

Latin and English Names of Seas/Oceans

References

• Mond (Wikipedia): de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mond
• Moon (Wikipedia): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon