Yepun's Moon shots

Processed VLT image of the Taruntius region on the Moon. The 10-km diameter crater Cameron is at the top of the picture and the fissure Rimae Taruntius runs from left to right across. © European Southern Observatory. One of the four units of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has used adaptive optics to take the sharpest ever ground-based image of the lunar surface. Part of the crater Taruntius is visible at a resolution of just 0.07 seconds of arc. This yields exquisite detail – features just 130m across can be seen.

At this resolution the image simulates the view astronauts would have in orbit 400 km above the lunar surface although at the time the VLT was at a distance of 370000 km from the Moon. The VLT imaged an area 700 km away from the Apollo 11 landing site to the north of the equator in the eastern hemisphere.

Left: The Moon with the inset region marked by the red square. Right: Diagram of the highlighted region with the craters Cameron and Taruntius indicated near the centre. (Moon photograph: © Berliner Mond-Atlas, 1989) On 30 April 2002 VLT engineers and astronomers observed the Moon using the NAOS-CONICA (NACO) adaptive optics camera mounted on the 8.2m Yepun telescope. On that night the time the Sun was 7 degrees above the western horizon causing long shadows and making even shallow features stand out clearly. Numerous impact craters can be seen, along with hills, ridges and the 50km long, 600m wide fissure Rimae Taruntius.