Here are some cool videos showing the far side of the Moon using time-lapse imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter :

Moon Phase and Libration, from the Other Side

A number of people who’ve seen the annual lunar phase and libration videos have asked what the other side of the Moon looks like, the side that can’t be seen from the Earth. This video answers that question.

Just like the near side, the far side goes through a complete cycle of phases. But the terrain of the far side is quite different. It lacks the large dark spots, called maria, that make up the familiar Man in the Moon on the near side. Instead, craters of all sizes crowd together over the entire far side. The far side is also home to one of the largest and oldest impact features in the solar system, the South Pole-Aitken basin, visible here as a slightly darker bruise covering the bottom third of the disk.

The far side was first seen in a handful of grainy images returned by the Soviet Luna 3 probe, which swung around the Moon in October, 1959. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched fifty years later, and since then it has returned hundreds of terabytes of data, allowing LRO scientists to create extremely detailed and accurate maps of the far side. Those maps were used to create the imagery seen here.

A virtual telescopic view of the Moon from its far side, with the
Earth looming in the background. The camera is fixed to
the Earth-Moon line.

 

A view from the Moon’s far side, using a short focal length that
makes the distant Earth look small. The camera is fixed
to the Moon’s surface.