Lunar Near Side: Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography

Caption

Lunar Near Side: Shaded Relief and Color-Coded Topography. U.S. Geological Survey, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature; maintained for the International Astronomical Union with NASA support.

Catalog notes

Familiar lunar seas and densely cratered highlands are shown together through shaded relief, an elevation color scale and a detailed network of approved names. The image turns the Moon’s Earth-facing terrain into a readable geographical surface, inviting comparison between broad basins and much smaller craters, ridges and valleys. Its coordinate grid and scale emphasize that a familiar object in the night sky can be measured and named with the same cartographic discipline used on Earth. The sheet also shows how standardized nomenclature helps observers and researchers identify the same landforms.

Original catalog record, source and attribution