The Hindu : dated February 7, 1953: Far Side of the Moon

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Friday, Feb 07, 2003

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dated February 7, 1953: Far Side of the Moon

H. Percy Wilkins, Director, Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association, published a new map of the Moon in the Journal of the Inter-Planetary Association, showing features of the other side of the Moon. The book was the fruit of long research with the finest telescopes available. He said that large areas of the side of the Moon turned away from our earth could only be guessed at until human beings could gain a look at that side going in a space ship. But he was sure that for the earliest men to venture a landing on the Moon, his map would be of help. Mr. Wilkins said that he had started his map with the area just over the rim of the Moon which can be seen when the satellite sways and dips in a motion known to astronomers as "liberation". Those peeps showed as much as a 100 miles of territory, or one-tenth of the other side. From those glimpses, he had mapped along the south edge a peak several thousand feet higher than Mount Everest (altitude 29,002 feet) on earth. Beyond this peak, the Wilkins map showed a huge plain or "sea", larger than the Sea of Rains (which shows up as a dark splotch on the side of the Moon that we see). Four craters in the east-central part had been located by tracing light rays, based on the pattern of rays caused by other craters.

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