The Moon, our nearest satellite is 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from us.
Further facts about the Moon
Takes about 3 days to get to it
Has a diameter of 2,159 miles (3,475 kilometers)
Is 4.53 Billion years old
Orbits Earth every 27 days
Is tilted 5 degrees
Temperature: -173°C to 127°C
Credit. The Moon. David Goodwin.
The Moon has eight phases.
Credit: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/phases.html
Features of the Moon
The Moon has lots of interesting features, These include; dozens of craters, Mares (Lava plains), e.g the Sea of Tranquility, Mountains, ridges, canyons and plains.
A 11 day old Moon.
Credit. Sandy Giles, WAS.
Examples of Mares
Credit:, Astro EDU: https://astroedu.iau.org/en/activities/lunar-landscape/
Craters and Mares of the Moon.
Credit. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lunar_features
How Many times have we been to the Moon?
According to the Royal Museum of Greenwich we have been to the moon seven times.
The Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969 was our first visit to the Moon. Followed by "six further trips to the Moon, five of which landed successfully. 12 men walked on the lunar surface in total."
NASA says there 14 missions to the moon. Credit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/index.html
The astronaut Neil Armstrong is famous for saying when stepping on to the moon:
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Credit NTD: First Moon Landing 1969
The Apollo 11 rocket - Saturn V5.
The moon. was visited by the enormous Saturn V5 rocket.
Credit. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V
The Apollo 11 Crew
The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew, pictured from left to right, Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot..
The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV)
The Moon has been traversed by Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) . A battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon.
Credit: Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Roving_Vehicle
The EPIC Rescue of Apollo 13: Capt. Jim Lovell Remembers
Captain Jim Lovell (astronaut) recalls his flight test days in the Gemini project, his time as a pilot for the Navy and the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.
Credit, American Veteran Centre
Eclipse of the Moon
There are 3 Eclipse of the Moon:
Total lunar eclipse - The Moon moves into the inner part of Earth’s shadow, or the umbra. Moon is a sunset red.
Partial lunar eclipse - An imperfect alignment of Sun, Earth and Moon results in the Moon passing through only part of Earth's umbra.
Penumbral eclipse - The Moon travels through Earth’s penumbra, or the faint outer part of its shadow. The Moon dims so slightly that it can be difficult to notice.
Credit: NASA: https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/eclipses/
Credit: National Geographic
Apollo 13 story and technical difficulties were depicted in the classic Apollo movie in 1995 starring Tom Hanks as Commander James A Lovell, Bill Paxton as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Fred W. Haise and Gary Sininese as Command Module Pilot (CMP) Thomas K. “Ken” Mattingly. Kevin Bacon as backup/prime Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert. See the trailer below.
Credit NASA. The very first picture of Earth and the Moon in a single frame was Taken in 1979 by Voyager 1 from a distance of 11.66 million km!
Cheers
Mark Brown