Earth's Moon - Luna 3
Close-up of the far side of the Moon from Luna 3
The Luna 3 spacecraft returned the first views ever of the far side of the Moon.
The first image was taken at 03:30 UT on 7 October at a distance of 63,500 km
after Luna 3 had passed the Moon and looked back at the sunlit far side. The
last image was taken 40 minutes later from 66,700 km. A total of 29 photographs
were taken, covering 70% of the far side. The photographs were very noisy and
of low resolution, but many features could be recognized. This close up view
taken with the narrow angle camera shows the far side has fewer maria (the dark
areas) than the near side. The image is centered at 20 N, 95 E and the dark
area to the left and just below center is Mare Marginus and below that Mare
Smythii, just at the boundary between the near and far sides. The left half
of the image shows the near side of the Moon, including the circular Mare
Crisium at far left. The Moon is 3475 km in diameter and north is up.
(Luna 3-27)
Larger image:
High resolution tiff file (13.4 Mb)
Location & Time Information
Date/Time (UT): 1959-10-07
Distance/Range (km): N/A
Central Latitude/Longitude (deg): 20., 95.
Orbit(s): Flyby
Imaging Information
Area or Feature Type: crater, maria
Instrument: Yenisey-2 Phototelevision System
Instrument Resolution (pixels): 1000 x 1000
Instrument Field of View (deg): N/A
Filter: N/A
Illumination Incidence Angle (deg): N/A
Phase Angle (deg): N/A
Instrument Look Direction: N/A
Surface Emission Angle (deg): N/A
Ordering Information
CD-ROM Volume: N/A
NASA Image ID number: Luna3_27
Other Image ID number:
NSSDC Data Set ID (Photo): 59-008A-01A
NSSDC Data Set ID (CD): N/A
Other ID: N/A
Updated 24 March 2003, DRW.
