Welcome to http://www.handsonuniverse.org/activities/Explorations/MoonMeasure

Investigate Images of Moon Craters, Valleys and Walls

Investigate the craters on any image.    Here are some ideas.  

1. Open any image.
2. Find (X, Y) coordinates of the crater's center.
3. Describe the crater with words or a sketch.
4. Measure the diameter with the slice tool, then convert to kilometers or miles.
5. Measure the circumference by adding together slices along the crater rim.  Convert to miles or kilometers. 
6. Look up each of these craters on a moon map.
7. Your own idea!

See more directions at the end of this page.

    moon1.fts

    moon16.fts

    moon16.fts

    moon14.fts

    moon6.fts

    moon7.fts

    moon9.fts

    moon4.fts

    moon17.fts

    moon5.fts

    moon5.fts

**Directions **

Something easy....

1. Find the center of the crater using the x, y coordinates. Look at the status bar at the bottom of the Image Processor. It tells you the position of your cursor on the image with an x value and a y value. (x,y)

Something creative....

2. Carefully observe the structure of each crater or other moon feature, such as mountains, valleys or walls.  Describe or sketch what you see.  Record your ideas and questions.

Something to calculate....

3. Measure a crater diameter or circumference or a valley length.

   1. Use slice and record the distance in pixels (from the Slice pop up graph) on the Moon images. Help with using the slice tool and calculating pixel scale.

   2. Plato is 62 miles (or 100 kilometers) across. To find the pixel scale for these images, divide the number of kilometers or miles by the number of pixels for the crater Plato. 
      What is the pixel scale in kilometers? _________
      What is the pixel scale in miles? _____________

   3. Measure each crater or feature.   Multiply the distance in pixels times the pixel scale you calculated above. 

HOU Educators: Download these .fts image to measure moon craters.

01/13/2000

*  HOU™ Explorations *