Earth's Moon - Luna 3
Wide-angle view 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 wide-angle view
shows the far side comprising most of the image, with the near side making up
about one-quarter of the disk at left. The dark patch at upper right is
Mare Moscoviense and the dark areas at below and left of center are Mare
Marginus and Mare Smythii. These are on the border between the near and far
sides. The small dark circle at lower right is the crater Tsiolkovskiy. The
image is centered at 15 N, 120 E, the Moon is 3475 km in diameter and north is
at 11:30.
(Luna 3-phc6)
Larger image:
High resolution tiff file (10.0 Mb)
Location & Time Information
Date/Time (UT): 1959-10-07
Distance/Range (km): N/A
Central Latitude/Longitude (deg): 15.,120.
Orbit(s): Flyby
Imaging Information
Area or Feature Type: crater, maria, global view
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_phc6
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.
