Moon surface photo taken with Lunar Orbiter IV

An enormous and complex lunar feature never before viewed from above was photographed by wide-angle lens as NASA's Lunar Orbiter IV spacecraft neared the end of its survey mission of the Moon. It is Orientale Basin, centered at 90 degrees West longitude and 15 degrees South latitude on the extreme western edge of the Moon's visible side. Its circular outer scarp, the Cordillera Mountains, is just over 600 miles in diameter. In this photograph, the Orientale Basin is at the center. When viewed with the band of edge data at left, the large, irregular patch of dark material at the extreme upper right is Oceanus Procellarum, some 750 miles from the edge of Orientale. The Cordillera Mountains which ring the Orientale Basin are among the most massive on the Moon, rising some 20,00 feet about the adjacent land. Within the outer ring, the Rook Mountains form another circular scarp about 400 miles in diameter.