The full Moon of October 22, 2010, as taken from Madison, Alabama. Image credit: Gregory H. Revera, under a c.c.a.-s.a.-3.0 license.

The Top 5 Features To Find On The Full Moon

Whether it’s “super” or not, you won’t want to miss this piece of the Universe.

“From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’” -Edgar Mitchell, Apollo astronaut

The full Moon, the most unique and recognizable sight in Earth’s night sky, tells a remarkable story even to the naked eye. Here are the top five features you can discover for yourself.

The maria — or seas — of the Moon’s surface visible on the near site. The sea of tranquility (Mare Tranquillitas) was the site of Apollo 11′s landing. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University, annotations by Stardate / The University of Texas McDonald Observatory.

1.) The lunar maria. These dark regions — Latin for “seas” — are solidified lava flows from between 3–3.5 billion years ago: a billion years younger than the majority of the lunar surface. Mare Tranquillitatis contained Apollo 11′s landing site.

A close-up image along with the location of Montes Apenninus, labelled and with data from the LROC wide-angle camera. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University.

2.) Montes Apenninus. The Moon’s highest mountain range outlines Mare Imbrium, extending for over 400 km. It contains Mons Huygens, the Moon’s tallest mountain…