Lunar Topography: Answer Sheet
- From your observations, give a brief description of a crater and a mare.
- Which side of the portion of the Moon that we see is lit first after a new moon?
- What is the purpose of the four flat panels on the sides?
- Do you think this image was taken from the Earth? Why or why not?
- Do you think the Apollo planners picked a reasonable range of sites to sample the lunar surface? Why or why not? Why are all the landing sites on the near side of the Moon?
- At what phase(s) could an Earth-based observer have seen the Moon when this image was taken?
- Record the crater's diameter and the height of its walls.
Make a sketch of the Earth-Moon-Sun geometry when this image was taken.
What was the phase of the moon when this image was taken?
- Measure the diameter of Copernicus (in pixels).
- The image scale is 800 meters per pixel. From this, determine Copernicus' diameter in kilometers (1 km = 1000 m).
- On some of the Copernicus images, it is possible to see that the walls are terraced. How many terraces do you see on Copernicus' walls?
- What is the height of each terrace (in pixels)?
Convert this distance to kilometers.
- What do you think caused the damage to the crater edges?
- Can you think of a reason for the craters to be in such a nice straight line?
