APOD 4.3

Today I chose to write about the far side of the Moon because it is something that is astronomically very close to us, yet has been seen by very few people. Because the Moon is locked in a synchronous orbit with the Earth only one side of the Moon can ever be seen from Earth and it is this side that almost everybody is familiar with. This picture however shows the other side of the Moon and it is very interesting how much this side varies with the side we can see. There are no lunar maria on this side, but instead it is covered with a massive amount of craters and appears very rough. Overall it is very interesting how much the Moon can vary simply by looking at one side or another.