Mapping of the Moon

Abstract

The lunar topography constitutes a subject whose emergence and subsequent evolution can be traced with relative precision: for its sources go back to the very first days of telescopic astronomy inaugurated by Galileo Galilei in 1609. Although Galileo was not the real inventor of the telescope, he was indubitably the first to use it for observations of celestial bodies; and as he recorded a year later in his Nuncius Sidereus,“... Sed missis terrenis ad coelestium speculationes me contuli: ac Lunam prius tam ex propinquo sum intuitus, ac si vix per duas Telluris diametros abesset” *; and further (on p. 13) he continued that “... De facie autem Lunae, quae ad aspectum nostrum vergit primo loco dicamus; quam facillionis intelligentiae gratia in duas partes distinguo, alteram nempe clariorem, obscuriorem alteram... ut certo intelligamus, Lunae superficiem non perpolitam, acquabilem, exactissimaeque sphaericitatis exsistere, ut magna Philosophorum cohors de ipsa deque reliquis corporibus coelestibus opinata est, sed contra inaequalem, asperam, caritatibus tumoribus confertam, non secus ac ipsiusmet Telluris faciem, quae montium ignis vallumque profunditatibus hic inde distinguitur”.**