Measuring Mountains on the Moon

TL;DR

This paper presents a method inspired by Galileo to measure the height of lunar mountains using geometric observations during a half Moon phase, leveraging the right triangle formed by Earth, Moon, and Sun.

Contribution

It introduces a simple geometric technique for lunar mountain height measurement based on observational astronomy during specific lunar phases.

Findings

Successfully computed mountain heights on the Moon.

Demonstrated the geometric method's effectiveness.

Provides a practical approach for lunar topography analysis.

Abstract

Following a technique of Galileo we compute the height on a mountain on the Moon. It is based on a simple observation that precisely on a half Moon day, the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun form the vertices of a right triangle with the Moon at the 90 degree vertex.