Dark Side of the Moon?

Green cheese and/or Jimmy Hoffa
Green cheese and/or Jimmy Hoffa.

Decent music as well there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3sMZbhs7QA

still my fave of all time

Both the Russians and the Chinese have made attempts to photograph the far side of the moon (commonly referred to as the "dark side"). You want to exercise a good deal of caution when searching for information on this topic. This subject attracts as many crackpot conspiracy theorists as the Kennedy assassination. One joker claims there is a 7000 ft. high structure there.

Here is something to get you started:

An article about the results of the reprocessing of photos the Soviets made in the 1960s.

An article about China's recent lunar orbiter.

This site has a list of links to pictures of the moon, but you'll have to sift through them yourself.

From the "Wired" blog site's wired science section, "No Dark Side of the Moon and Other Science Party Poopers."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ezPotNSNqg

too bad americans didnt actually land there.
They could have told us what was back there.

Far Side of the Moon
Credit:
Apollo 16, NASA
Explanation: Locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its well-known near side to Earth. But from lunar orbit, Apollo astronauts also grew to know the Moon's far side. This sharp picture from Apollo 16's mapping camera shows the eastern edge of the familiar near side (left) and the strange and heavily cratered far side of the Moon. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the far side looks very different from the near side which is covered with smooth dark lunar maria. The likely explanation is that the far side crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form the smooth maria.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap981008.html

The US launced Clementin which circled the moon and took pictures

http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/clementine/clementine.html

A neat graphic that shows the moon rotating
http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/clementine/clemovies/rotation.mpeg

parados quotes-



You have to laugh. Had Mr Jefferson a squeaky voice?

It must be said that there is no dark side of the moon. The moon has a day/night just as the Earth does, although the lunar day is about an Earth month long. There is, however, a far side, which always faces away from us.