through my telescope, it seems that the dark parts of the moon are actually shadows of mountain ranges, true?

Question

I once had a chance to see a clear full moon through my amateur telescope, and it appears to me that the "blemishes" in the moon's face are in fact the shadow casts by the mountains on the moon. Is this true?

Answer 1

Depending on the angle of the light, mountains and craters will cast shadows, but the large patches of darker material on the moon which help to define the "man in the moon" are known as lunar mares. These mares, or "seas" are actually basaltic plains caused by basaltic eruptions on the moon when it was young and geologically active.

Answer 2

You should think about this logically. When you can see the full Moon's features, it's because the sun is illuminating the Moon almost from directly, so it's like high noon everywhere on the Moon. There would be almost no shadows during that condition. The Moon's "seas" are caused by differences in the reflectivity of the material on the surface of the Moon.

The only time that you'd be able to see serious shadows is between a new moon and and a half moon, yet, you don't see long shadows because there are no tall mountains on the Moon.

Answer 3

If you want to see the shadows then you should look at the terminator -- line between the light and the dark parts. The "unblemished" half of the moon has somewhat more 'stuff' on it, making shadows easier to see in small telescopes.

And comeon, the blemished parts don't look *that* dark do they?
Wouldn't you notice such huge mountains? That thing is 2,000 miles wide you know..

Answer 4

it would could be a telescope with a some seventy 5 meter diameter aperture to easily make certain the lunar module, this is, to differentiate it as a separate blob from different close by merchandise blobs. to work out it in any element, the aperture might desire to be according to hazard 750 to 1000 meters or greater. it is because of the fact diffraction on the telescope aperture limits angular decision to approximately: alpha = a million.22 x lambda / Diameter (of aperture), the place lambda is the wavelength of the viewing mild. This equation supplies the angular separation of two products, say the left and precise area of the lander, which could "basically be resolved" as 2 products. there is a few fudge-element room right here with digital photograph processing, yet this is a oftentimes regularly occurring decision while seen by a telescope with the Mark I eyeball. So, what does that mean? The lunar module is type of four m extensive and on universal approximately 385,000 km from earth. It consequently subtends an perspective (in radians) of four / 385,000,000, or type of a million x 10^(-8) radians. If we set that equivalent to alpha and clean up for D at six hundred nm wavelength, we get a diameter of roughly seventy 3 meters, which I rounded as much as seventy 5 meters, a diameter extremely larger than 200 ft. exceptionally large replicate for a mundane telescope. i do no longer think of any have been geared up that large yet. So the respond on your question is "No." With adaptive optics, and a coherent "instruction manual beam" to scatter off aerosols interior the earth environment, it may be available to synthesize this huge aperture from 2 or greater smaller aperture telescopes spaced a hundred meters or so aside. Photon counting recommendations might probable be required to yield a picture of goods on the moon, because of the fact the quantity of sunshine amassed does no longer be large, besides the fact that the aperture may be. yet why hardship, just to view some abandoned NASA hardware? as quickly as we deliver human beings returned there to envision an eternal moon base, they are in a position to take each and every of the pictures they desire from moon orbit utilising cameras with lots smaller apertures (on account that they are going to be lots closer). Or, in the event that they land everywhere close to the unique exploration web pages, they are in a position to take close-united statesand according to hazard convey mutually souvenirs.

Answer 5

You can see mountains on the moon through an amateur telescope. you can also see craters, and other stuff. Do a quick google on "lunar features" and you'll turn up lots of stuff.

Answer 6

No, not the mountains; they are the opposites i.e. craters OR big holes OR crests.

The dark spots are the large holes created on the moon by the meteorites striking it.

Answer 7

Arbiter being the most correct, also the large dark areas or Seas or Mares...flat open areas that appear smooth to us, just smoother.

Answer 8

No, they are crators or the part of the moon which cannot be showed because of the postition of the sun.