Mountains at the Moon's edge PART 1:THE MOUNTAINS OF ETERNAL LIGHT

摘要

Ever since the telescope was first turned Moonwards, lunar observers have been fascinated by the lunar limb - the illuminated edge of the Moon's disk. Anyone looking at the magnified image of the Moon will appreciate that it is far from being perfectly smooth. Galileo noted the rough nature of the lunar surface, a surface replete with mountains and plains. Even if the Moon was shrunk to the size of a snooker ball, the human fingertips would be sensitive enough to detect subtle, rough irregularities, especially on its crater-crowded far-side and in the bright, cratered lunar highlands of the near-side.