Moonshots

"Even with a small telescope, you can pinpoint some of the landing areas [from the Apollo missions]. I will describe how to 'crater hop' to the sites below. A detailed moon map will help."



Apollo 11 Find the crater Julius Caesar to the left of the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis). Below and to the right are two unnamed craters joined to look like the number 8. Directly south are the twin craters Ritter and Sabine. Apollo 11 is about 3 Sabine sized crater widths to the right of Sabine. Three tiny craters above the site are named Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong after the Apollo 11 astronauts. The best days to look is about 5 or 6 days after the new moon or 4 or 5 days after the full moon.

Apollo 12 landed in Mare Insularum, about two crater widths southeast of the crater Lansburg.

Apollo 14 landed north of Fra Mauro, a ringed plain that sits at the boundary between Mare Insularum and Mare Cognitum. The best time to see this this plain is at the waxing gibbous or waning crescent phase (Days. 7-13 and 22-27).

Apollo 15 Find the crater Archimedes to the left of the Appenine mountains. Between the crater and the mountains is a feature called Hadley Rille. When this area is in shadow, on day 20 or 21, you will see the undulating rilles. This rille is just west of the Apollo 15 landing site. To Astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin, this was a very steep climb on their exploration of the lunar surface.

Apollo 16 landed in the Descartes highland. Look one crater width north of Descartes to find the site.

Apollo 17 Find the eastern shore of Mare Serenitatis. The site of Apollo 17 lies between the craters Littrow and Mons Argaeus in the Taurus-Littrow Valley.

From "A Day in the Life of the Moon."

See Inconstant Moon or Observing the Sky, also.