Earth's Moon - Luna 3
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 view shows the
far side at right and the near side making up about one-third of the image at
left. The circular dark patch below and left of center is mare Smythii, on the
boundary between the near and far sides. Just above this is Mare Marginus.
The dark circle at upper right is Mare Moscoviense and at lower right is the
crater Tsiolkovskiy with its light central peak. The image is centered at 10 N,
110 E, the Moon is 3475 km in diameter and north is at 11:30.
(Luna 3-phc7)
Larger image:
High resolution tiff file (8.2 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_phc7
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.
