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Solar System

You can explore Moon using this awesome map

Rotating Moon
NASA APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) published an amazing video showing a rotating Moon. In fact, no one sees the Moon rotate like this. We see only one side of the moon, because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth. But, thanks to modern digital technology combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high-resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has been composed.

This awesome map, using imagery taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), enables us to explore Moon within our browsers.

You can use the map and explore the Moon by going to quickmap.lroc.asu.edu website. The map also enables you to export images.

There are six projections available:

  1. Orthographic (Farside)
  2. Orthographic (Nearside)
  3. Equidistant Cylindrical (< 75 deg.) (see notes 1 below this post)
  4. Orthographic (South Pole)
  5. Orthographic (North Pole)
  6. Lunar Globe (3D). If you use this projection, you can explore Moon by rotating it.
Explore Moon
You can explore Moon by using this map
Earth-Moon-Farout size comparison

Related: Amazing Moon facts

Rotating Moon

Related: Rotating Moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Notes

1. Equidistant cylindrical projection

Equidistant cylindrical projection or Equirectangular projection is a simple map projection attributed to the Greek (or possibly Phoenician, C. AD 70-130) geographer and cartographer Marinus of Tyre, who Ptolemy claims invented the projection about AD 100.

The projection maps meridians to vertical straight lines of constant spacing (for meridional intervals of constant spacing), and circles of latitude to horizontal straight lines of constant spacing (for constant intervals of parallels). The projection is neither equal-area nor conformal. Because of the distortions introduced by this projection, it has little use in navigation or cadastral mapping and finds its main use in thematic mapping.

Sources

M. Özgür Nevres
Latest posts by M. Özgür Nevres (see all)
Özgür Nevres

By M. Özgür Nevres

I am a software developer and a science enthusiast. I was graduated from the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Computer Engineering. In the past, I worked at the Istanbul Technical University Science Center as a science instructor. I write about the planet Earth and science on this website, ourplnt.com. I am also an animal lover! I take care of stray cats & dogs. This website's all income goes directly to our furry friends. Please consider supporting me on Patreon, so I can help more animals!

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