Unique View of the Moon (NASA's Lunar Orbiter)

I've done a quick search and didn't find this. Thought this video was really neat.

By using the Wide Angle Camera (WAC) aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (and adjusting brightness), this unique view of the moon has been created.

Space.com Moon Video

"The far side, which is always pointed away from Earth, is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the dark side. From the ground, Earthlings can't see what this hemisphere looks like as the sun moves across its surface during the changing lunar cycle. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft snapped the first farside portrait in 1959. Several NASA astronauts actually set their eyes on this hidden region during the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and 1970s." -Space.com

reply to post by OptimusCrime

Awesome view, thanks for bringing it.

reply to post by OptimusCrime

Cool, nice to able to see it all at once.

Couldn't see any big honkin' space guns, disappointed.

Thanks!

reply to post by OptimusCrime


Thanks for sharing the video. Never seen that one before.

Watching it reminded me looking at Rupes Recta on the moon through a telescope because it looks considerably different under different lighting conditions.

OptimusCrime
"The far side, which is always pointed away from Earth, is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the dark side. From the ground, Earthlings can't see what this hemisphere looks like as the sun moves across its surface during the changing lunar cycle. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft snapped the first farside portrait in 1959.

So it's not on youtube? I can play youtube videos, but space.com videos don't play for me.

I was watching a Disney documentary about the moon made prior to 1959, and it said scientists thought the far side of the moon was expected to look like the side we can see.

Turns out they were wrong, even though the assumption sounds logical. The far side looks completely different.

Cool video! The only thing missing is the colour. The Moon isn't utterly black & while. I looked at it last night through binoculars, and could clearly see some blue in some of the dark maria.

BTW, here's the Youtube video:

Arbitrageur
I was watching a Disney documentary about the moon made prior to 1959, and it said scientists thought the far side of the moon was expected to look like the side we can see.

Turns out they were wrong, even though the assumption sounds logical. The far side looks completely different.

The funny thing is, the far side is actually the "normal-looking" one. When we sent probes out to image other airless, heavily-cratered bodies in the solar system, they all turned-out to be uniformly covered in small-to-medium craters, with a few, random "big whacks". Why the near side of Luna has so many large maria is still something of a mystery. It may have to do with the way it formed.

The wide angle camera provides 100 meters (328 ft) per pixel images over a swath 100 kilometers (62 mi) wide. The wide angle system images the lunar surface at seven different wavelengths (310 - 680 nm) to characterize the distribution of lunar resources, particularly the iron-, titanium-, and oxygen-bearing mineral, ilmenite.

How does the camera distinguish ilmenite?

GaryN

The wide angle camera provides 100 meters (328 ft) per pixel images over a swath 100 kilometers (62 mi) wide. The wide angle system images the lunar surface at seven different wavelengths (310 - 680 nm) to characterize the distribution of lunar resources, particularly the iron-, titanium-, and oxygen-bearing mineral, ilmenite.

How does the camera distinguish ilmenite?

Specific minerals strongly reflect or absorb different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Seven filters within the LROC WAC allow scientists to identify concentrations of ilmenite, olivine, and other minerals in the lunar regolith.



Spectra of ilmenite (black line) shows a distinctive downturn in reflectance near 500nm. The WAC has the unique ability to acquire measurements in the UV (300, 360 nm) that are well suited to separate ilmenite from basalt.

Sources: lroc.sese.asu.edu...
www.space.com...
www.nasa.gov...

reply to post by wildespace


So the rotating Moon 'video' is actually composed of still frames from a UV sensitive spectral imaging camera, not from a video camera. Why won't they send something like this low light video camera around the Moon?

HL-87M 3CCD Ultra Low-light Color Camera - OWL VISION -
www.ikegami.com...

The manufacturer said it would need some radiation shielding, but would be fine otherwise. Maybe a good Kickstarter project?

reply to post by wildespace

Thanks for inserting the youtube version!

reply to post by Saint Exupery

Yes I'm sure there are some clues about the moon's formation in the lopsided appearance. I've seen animations that show very violent impacts on the near side creating the maria, but the hypotheses of moon formation do still have some questions and discrepancies.

reply to post by GaryN

For one thing, it's only 400,000 pixels versus the other cameras had over a million pixels.
But more importantly NASA is doing science of mineral analysis as previously stated and not just looking for pretty pictures.
If you really wanted to send a camera and had the money I think you could do better than that camera meaning it should be easy to get over a million pixels instead of only 400,000. Also I don't know why you'd need night vision technology, since even though the moon is dark the sunlit moon from orbit is pretty bright. You also need communication technology to transmit the images, a way to aim it, etc., so you need a lot more than just radiation shielding.

reply to post by GaryN


Having a video camera up there wouldn't make sense cost-wise and science-wise. Everything we need to learn about the Moon using cameras can be done using photo cameras. Video would just take up valuable energy, time, and bandwidth.

Secondly, scientists prefer using CCDs with a filter wheel, rather than a colour photo or video camera. A regular colour photo might look pretty and be good for PR, but would offer very little scientific value, or even be useless for particular goals of the mission.

The Japanese orbiter Kaguya had HD video camera, purely for PR purposes. You can find their videos on Youtube. They are spectacular, but again, they offer very little scientific value.

reply to post by wildespace


Well I hope they can afford a decent zoom lens for the next orbiter.

300x Zoom - World's most powerful Optical zoom Panavision
www.youtube.com...