MOON TOUR
LUNAR LAKES
Small but perfectly formed, Lacus Spei and Lacus Temporis are worth a look at full Moon
The Moon is famous for its dark seas, or mare, and even nonastronomers know the name of one: the Sea of Tranquillity is where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in July 1969 on the Apollo 11 mission. Many of the seas have equally romantic names – the Sea of Crises, the Sea of Dreams, the Sea of Serenity – which is rather ironic considering they aren’t beautiful seas at all, but huge plains of ancient, dark, frozen lava. The largest lunar mare are clearly visible even to the naked eye, looking like dark blotches on the Moon’s bright face, and are especially prominent at full Moon. Much smaller and harder to see than the seas are the lunar lakes, or lacus. These are essentially ‘mini mare’, visually more like ink splashes on a white shirt than vast spills of oil on the ocean, and are so small you generally need a telescope to see them.