The Moon: More Craters?

Over the last few nights, I've been looking at the moon and I've noticed a massive difference in the amount of craters that are on it. The right (mainly lower right) part looks so much darker (craters) than it used to be.

Is it just me or has anybody else noticed this?

Might be just the angle at which the Sun is catching it, depending on when you look at it sometimes it looks like there are virtually no craters at all (like during a full Moon).

Maybe, but the moon was visible at about 4PM yesterday, and it looked like it had plenty more craters in it. Then I looked at it again at about 2AM (obviously the other side of my house) and the craters were still there.

You would only see a significant enough difference in the shadows over a period of a few days, try observing it every day for a month and see what you think.

These sites might help you to for something to compare it against:

www.lpi.usra.edu...

www.lunarrepublic.com...

[edit on 14-11-2005 by AgentSmith]

Will do

Thank you for the links.

No problem - glad to be of help Let us know if you find anything

If you're looking at the moon with, say, an 8" SC telescope, regardless of the magnifying power, you wouldn't be able to make out anything smaller than a mile or so in diameter. So if you're seeing new craters, the impact needed to produce a crater that size would be bright that it could possibly be seen with the naked eye, and it would've been HUGE astronomical news -- about the same as the comet Shoemaker-Levy impact on Jupiter a couple of years ago.

And that'd be for just one crater. A whole raft of them would be the lead news item all over the world.

I think that one of the reasons you're seeing more craters appear is what another poster said: increasing "obliquity" of the light as the sun starts to set over the long lunar day. The increasing shadows cast by the setting sun make hitherto-unnoticed craters jump into focus better.

[edit on 14-11-2005 by Off_The_Street]