Permanently Shadowed Regions Atlas

Permanently Shadowed Regions

(light scattered onto non-illuminated lunar, photo-starved features and terrain - particularly at the North and South regions of the Moon)

Wikipedia

Lunar North Pole
Lunar South Pole

Additional Information

Four questions:
  1. What's the northern latitude of the most southern permanently shadowed region on the moon's northern hemisphere?
  2. Is the location of that most southern permanently shadowed region on the moon's northern hemisphere known? (Latitude / Longitude).
  3. What's the southern latitude of the most northern permanently shadowed region on the moon's southern hemisphere?
  4. Is the location of that most northern permanently shadowed region on the moon's southern hemisphere known? (Latitude / Longitude).
 - DannyCaes Nov 8, 2017
 
 

Trivia

Other permanently shadowed regions (spots) are parts of the inner steep walls and floors of several skylights, although I don't think there are northern and southern skylights, only the few near the equator (once in a lunar day they are illuminated by the sun at or near their zenith). We could only guess if there are subsurface tunnels near these skylights, if so, they might receive their first light when unmanned crawlers explore their interiors. See Skylights.
 - DannyCaes Nov 9, 2017
 
 

LROC Articles

Permanently Shadowed Regions Atlas - with options to download a PDF file (recommended).
The shadowed North Pole regions
Peary crater: Greetings from the North Pole of the Moon
Eternal Darkness near the North Pole (at crater Erlanger).
Scanning towards the North Pole
The Lunar North Pole
North Pole Mosaics and Movie
Casting Light on Permanently Shadowed Regions (example: the inner slopes and bulbous floor of Sylvester N).
Searching for ice at the moon's poles (examples: Sylvester N and Main L).
The shadowed South Pole regions
Lunar South Pole - Out of the Shadows
The Lunar South Pole
South Pole Illumination Map
1000 Day Anniversary of LROC Imaging (South Pole crater Shackleton).
Five Years Later: revisiting an old friend (South Pole crater Shackleton).
Lunar Exploration: planning the next steps (at South Pole craters Shackleton and de Gerlache).
Polar illumination maps and more!
On the Rim! (of southpole crater Shackleton).

Bibliography

• Mitchell, J. et al (2017). Using complementary remote sensing techniques to assess the presence of volatiles at the lunar north pole. - Planetary and Science - doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2017.07.015, 2017.
• Gläser, J. et al (2017). Illumination conditions at the lunar poles: Implications for future exploration. - Planetary and Science - doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2017.07.006, 2017.
• Lee, P. (2018) Possible Lava Tube Skylights Discovered Near The North Pole of the Moon - SETI Institute and Mars Institute on 11 January 2018.

Appendix
The perfect globe-shaped MOON-balloon from sculptor Luke Jerram (diameter: 7 meter) also shows the permanently shadowed regions on the moon's north and south poles. Because this balloon is almost always hanging northpole-up/ southpole-down above the art-lovers and occasional visitors, the moon's southpole region is the most frequenly photographed part of it. I wonder if this 7 meter globe is also hanging in large indoor multiple-floor places where you could explore the northpole region too, from locations "above" the balloon.
This MOON-balloon is composed of orbital LROC photographs (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera), which means you see the most perfect globe-shaped lunar atlas ever created! (imagine such a MOON-balloon with additional IAU-nomenclature of the basins, craters, and mountain ranges... could be a superb hovering moon-atlas to be explored by those who have small binoculars...) (a subtle red laser pointer could be very interesting to aim the attention of the visitors toward certain noticeable spots on the globe).
I wonder how many (of the art-lovers and occasional visitors) are really aware of what they are looking at?
- DannyCaes Nov 11, 2017

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