This map was also part of my 'exploring the farside' series from many months ago. It shows the Luna 3 mosaic projected onto an azimuthal grid for the far side. A big chunk was still not mapped. Some names were given and they include the Moscow Sea - still used now - and Bay of Astronauts (Zaliv Astronavtov). The word Cosmonaut was not yet in use. Tsiolkovskiy is also still used. Mechta Sea commemorates Mechta (Luna 1). It's still used on Russian maps. #maps #Moon #Luna3

This shows the area covered by the images and a cleaned-up mosaic of good bits of individual images. Vladislav Shevchenko at Sternberg gave me a copy of the original atlas published to document the mission. Several maps were made by different groups but obviously it was not easy to interpret many of the markings revealed in the images. But the scarcity of dark lava flows was immediately apparent. #moon #Luna3

@valere Humans have seen this view of our closest large celestial body for less time than Paul McCartney has been alive. #luna3 #farsideofthemoon #1959 #moon