Zooming in on this week’s full moon
Orb
Astronaut Jack Fischer took this photo of the moon with the barest hint of the top of Earth’s atmosphere in the frame from the window of the International Space Station on July 7. This shot of the nearly full moon was taken only a short time after the conclusion of a partial lunar eclipse. This is the last full moon before the upcoming total solar eclipse, which will take place on the next New Moon.
The rayed crater you see in the right side of the frame is known as Tycho. The dark areas are known as Mare – a term that dates back before telescopes when these areas were thought to be possible seas. We now know they are mostly impact craters that have since filled with lava. At the far left side of the frame there are 2 large mare that show up well in this shot: Mare Imbrium is the lower one and Mare Serinatatis is above it. The next dark spot up and to the right, with more poorly defined boundaries than the sharp edges of Serinatatis, is Mare Tranquilatatis or the Sea of Tranquility; site of the first human footprints on the Moon.
-JBB
Image credit: Jack Fischer/NASA https://twitter.com/Astro2fish/status/894681843173212163
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