When most of you look up at the Moon at night you see it’s nearside with dark and light patches. The dark patches are large deposits of basalt (the volcanic rocks you find in Hawaii). In the northern hemisphere these basalt patches appear to be concentrated near the top and left side of the Moon. When you can see the Moon clearly in the southern hemisphere it appears upside-down! The basalts are concentrated near the bottom and right side of the Moon (according to a northern hemisphere reference). This is because in the southern hemisphere you are basically standing upside down on Earth
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| Picture of the Moon over one of the Stocking Glacier recessional moraines. In this particular picture it is difficult to make out the light and dark patches. |
Totally cool!! Can you imagine having to learn everything "upside-down" though? and then getting confused when other people reference it the northern hemisphere way?
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