July 10, 2025
Full moon occurs tonight. Lunar maria, or the dark spots, are good targets to explore on nights of the full moon. These are the large dark patches you can see with just your eyes.
These dark spots are basaltic plains that were formed by lava flowing into ancient impact basins. The name “maria” is latin for “seas” due to ancient astronomers mistaking these dark spots for actual oceans on the surface of the Moon. Different sized maria are named based on other latinized water features such as oceanus (ocean), lacus (‘lake’), palus (‘marsh’), and sinus (‘bay’).
Image courtesy of svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
