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The Moon.

 The moon orbits the Earth from 384,400 km and has an average speed of 3700 km per hour. It has a diameter of 3476 km, and a mass of 7.35e22 kg. The moon is the second brightest object in the sky after the sun. The gravitational forces between the Earth and the moon cause some interesting effects; tides are the most obvious.

The moon has no atmosphere, but there is evidence by the United States Department of Defence Clementine spacecraft shows that there maybe water ice in some deep craters near the moon's North and South Pole that are permanently shaded. There are two types of terrain on the moon. One is the heavily cratered and very old highlands. The other is the relatively smooth and younger craters that were flooded with molten lava. Most of the moon's surface is covered with regolith, which is a mixture of fine dust and rocky debris produced by meteor impact.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, visual exploration through powerful telescopes has yielded a fairly comprehensive picture of the visible side of the moon.. Craters are now known to cover the entire moon, ranging in size from huge, ringed maria to those of microscopic size. The entire moon has millions of craters larger than about 1 m in diameter.

The moon shows different phases as it moves along its orbit around the earth. Half the moon is always in sunlight, just as half the earth has day while the other half has night. The phases of the moon depend on how much of the sunlit half can be seen at any one time. In the new moon, the face is completely in shadow. About a week later, the moon is in first quarter, resembling a half-circle; another week later, the full moon shows its fully lighted surface; a week afterward, in its last quarter, the moon appears as a half-circle again. The entire cycle is repeated each lunar month, which is approximately 29.5 days. The moon is full when it is farther away from the sun than the earth; it is new when it is closer. When it is more than half-illuminated, it is said to be in gibbous phase. The moon is waning when it progresses from full to new, and waxing as it proceeds again to full.

Temperatures on its surface are extreme, ranging from a maximum of 127 C (261F) at lunar noon to a minimum of -173?C (-279?F) just before lunar dawn.

 If you get the chance to observe the moon through a telescope then take it. It is a breathtaking sight that never fails to amaze!!