(Click here to see the image without text and an additional image of the Lunar South Pole.)
One of the most interesting features on the Moon is the "Straight Wall", or Rupes Recta. It's a scarp that extends for roughly 120km and stands 250 meters high. Much much longer than it is tall, its appearance is caused by the narrow sun angle before full moon. After full moon it appears as a bright line rather than a dark one. Just off the right of this image (and visible in the one on the next page) is the Lunar South Pole, which is heavily cratered. In fact, this region is jam packed with impact craters! Some of the interesting craters near the terminator (the line dividing light and shadow) are Pitatus (105km in diameter), Tycho (84km), and Clavius (225km). Tycho is a relatively young and fresh crater- you can tell because it appears brighter than its surroundings. Young craters are bright, while older ones are darker and more eroded. Tycho has a well defined central peak, and the most extensive series of rays of any of the Moon's craters. They stretch all the way across the near side of the moon. See our waxing gibbous moon images for a better look at Tycho and its ray system. Clavius, on the other hand, is an old, heavily eroded crater that has a string of smaller craters inside of it. The bottom image on the next page has a little sharper view of Tycho and Clavius. Just above Pitatus is the crater Hell! However, this is probably not the place people mean when they say "Go to Hell!"  Deslandres (235km) is the large, diamond shaped, badly eroded crater that encircles Hell. The crater Saussure (56km) actually looks like 2 craters, one made over top of another one the same size.