hmmm... not cheese
Extra Crater
I love globes and maps. Not any globes. They have to have moving parts (like one of my previous posts) or be unique in some way. My moon globe is one of my most prized possessions because it is so strange. Sit back and let me tell you a story.
When I was a small child I would go visit my grandparents, like most kids do. My parents would sit upstairs and talk with my grandparents and my sister and I would go play downstairs. On a shelf, significantly out of my reach, was a moon globe. My grandparents had got it from a National Geographic (or something similar, they don’t remember) and for some reason, I was obsessed with it. I would usually ask to get it taken down for me, and since it was a metal ball, they usually did. I must have gotten smart at some point and realized that, with the aid of a pool cue (my grandfather was an avid billiards player) I could poke the globe and it would fall down to me. However, being (then) a small geeklet, my ability to get rid of the cue and catch the moon globe was poor. Therefore it hit the floor many times. This lead to the moon globe obtaining a number of craters that were not part of the original plan (see pic #2). Fast-foreward some years and my grandparents show up with a dented globe which they present to me and state that it was mine, since I had left my mark on it.
Bet you didn't know the moon was labeled
Final interesting fact: since we alway see only one side of the moon and since this globe was manufactured before 1969 (the first moon landing), the backside of the moon globe is not complete. We did not know what that side looked like. That, in my books, makes this an even more interesting artifact.
This globe (and the story) show up almost every year in one of my science classes. The kids love it. Take that Google Space.
(Pictures courtesy of my hours messing with my new camera)
That's awesome! I had a globe when I was young that lit up to show what part of the earth was in sunlight. It was cool. I wonder if my parents still have it…
The far side of the Moon was mapped before any of the Apollo landings– the first photographs date all the way back to 1959 (Luna 3). Zond 3 did quite a good job during its 1965 flyby. Still a cool globe, though.
<img src="http://rlv.zcache.com/here_there_be_monsters_poster-p228179659335648617t5ta_400.jpg">
<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_nA8t7ZFEOBI/S7OHoPAQHBI/AAAAAAAAAu4/mkyhpHR5p-g/s1600/Dark+Side+of+the+Moon_dark_side.jpg">
[youtube 7JDaOOw0MEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE youtube]
Damn. I hate it when I make shit up and have somebody call me on it. Interesting fact: I just assumed that was the reason for lack of info. So I wonder why they did not print the topography?
My guess is the Cold War: (1) A disinclination to credit (or even acknowledge) Soviet accomplishments and (2) a refusal to print all the Commie-rific names that they bestowed upon many of the far-side features. Probably more of the second than the first, since the near-side Soviet probes are indicated. Showing a balance of successes on the near side just emphasizes the urgency of the Space Race, whereas showing a USSR-dominated far side might have been a little too uncomfortable for the intended market.
There would also be the fact that as far as the Americans were concerned, anything done by the Soviets hadn't been done. If the Americans couldn't confirm it, they simply considered it unsubstantiated hogwash. As far as they were concerned, you couldn't trust them, so they were probably making it all up.
Yes. See point (1) above.
Was agreeing with you, just expanding the point; it wasn't just a matter of not crediting or acknowledging, it was the fact that there was such a massive disinformation and propaganda campaign going back and forth between the Russians and the Americans that you literally couldn't trust anything they said. They could have said that on that side of the moon there actually was nothing there, and it turned out the whole moon was a hollow crust, or all along the backside of the moon were a series of condominiums and golf courses. It would have been taken to be just as credible as any real photos the Soviets released.
In the Robert H. Goddard Museum and Planetarium entrance, the entire wall is a map of the moon. When we would go to the planetarium, I would study that wall. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever.
My friend has a huge mural of the surface of the moon with the earth depicted in the background in his bedroom. If it isn't a real photo then it's a pretty good rendering. Best wallpaper ever.