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Understanding

Moon Encyclopedia

Dates of discoveries

Names of craters and "seas" of the Moon

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Discoveries > Moon I

THE MOON

Thanks to his telescope, Galileo was first discovering in 1609, the lunar ground as shown by his drawing at left.
Many astronomers then drew up maps of the Moon: French Mellan in 1639, the Belgian Langrenus in 1645, Polish J. Hevelius in 1647, Ch d'Orléans in 1659 (middle). Instruments of the XIXth century allowed better drawings (at right).

Today, space probes have allowed a very precise mapping of the lunar surface.