Selenographers are those who study the features of the moon. This includes all physical features which are viewable with the eyes by using tools such as telescopes and imaging devices. The practice is a smaller part of selenology which is the science of the moon. Selenographers of today study the changes that occur on the moon when we visit as well as map important information for the government about what we have done on the moon.

Famous Selenographers in History

There has been a large selection of selenographers in history. The famous ones are the ones who have made significant discoveries or had accomplished something before others in the selenography field could do so. Their discoveries lead to several advancements in technologies and created reasons to wonder what was on the other side of the moon. The following people are those responsible for advancing selenography in history:

Democritus – In 450 BC he speculated the features of the moon included mountains and valleys and was simply not smooth as was believed by a majority of the people of the time. His observations were proven later on as the abilities to see and actually visit the moon up close became available.

William Gilbert – This man created the first naked eye rendition in 1603. He used what he had available to him to draw what he saw the moon as. Even though it was not completely accurate, it was the most accurate diagram at the time.

Johan Meyer – In 1750 he created a set of lunar coordinates which was used to help map out the near side of the moon. The coordinates allowed mapping more accurately of the moon.

Johan Schroter – This gentleman in 1779, took meticulous measurements of features on the moon. He estimated the size of the features and made it possible to create more accurate renditions of the lunar surface which was viewable by humans at the time.

Johann Heinrich von Madler – 1834 saw the first published lunar map by this man. This was the most advanced map of the lunar surface which was accurate enough to show most of the features which were viewable through telescope. This was used as the definitive map for selenography until more advanced options were available.What does a Selenographer Study

J. W. Draper – When 1840 came along, this man created a daguerreotype (primitive photograph exposure) of the moon which was of low quality, but showed many of the features that were already mapped out. Successful daguerreotype images that came after this work showed even more details on the lunar surface.

Russian Space Program – This program in 1959, was able to be the first to photograph and transmit images of the far side of the moon. This was the first view of the opposite side of the moon that modern man has ever seen. The incident had then lead to various international programs entering the space race to attempt to reach the moon.

The Features of the Moon

The moon is rich in features that have been there for millions of years as well as recent changes which have been made by the recent human visitors. The wide variety of natural features would always astonish the early selenographer because they really could not tell what was on the surface of the moon because they never had the ability to see it up close. The advent of the improvements to the telescope in times of Galileo made selenography easier to perform by allowing people to see the surface of the moon much clearer with more detail. The following are all features of the moon which are of major importance in modern selenography:

Mountains – the lunar mountains and mountain ranges are some of the biggest features which can be observed through a telescope. Some mountains were large while some were small. This made it possible to see a variety of mountain types on the lunar surface.

Valleys – the valleys occur between mountainous areas are interesting because they show activity from millions, even billions of years ago. The valleys can be deep cut, suggesting liquid erosion or fairly smooth, meaning that they have remained the same since they had appeared when the moon was still active.

Craters – impacts caused from other satellites such as meteorites and other celestial bodies which got caught in the gravity field of earth or the moon. These can be very wide or very deep, depending on the size of the object and the speed in which it was travelling upon impact with the earth. These features are important because they can help gauge how old the moon has been in orbit around the earth by dating the impact objects if ever found.

Maria – Mare were thought to be ancient oceans on the surface of the moon. In recent understanding, they are dark colored because of iron deposits left behind by ancient volcanoes. Some of the newest volcanoes (which are no longer active) have been dated to have been active billions of years ago. The moon is thought to be a dead "planet" because it no longer has activity within it which explains the absence of volcanic activity.

Modern Man Made Materials – The moon is now littered with several manmade objects which have been left behind from activity there. During the moon race, several countries which had the capabilities to make vessels which could travel to the moon attempted to get there first. This lead to poorly designed spacecraft which left behind debris and modules such as the Lunar Lander base which was too heavy to be lifted off of the moon when the United States returned from the Apollo spacecraft.

All of the technologies which made it possible to visit the moon made it possible to get high quality imagery and detailed maps of the moon. These advanced selenography tools have made it so that normal people could easily find features on the moon by simply using the coordinate maps which were designed long ago by Johan Meyer.