The Moon, of course, needs no introduction. Everyone has seen it, even those in the most light-polluted cities. But it’s so familiar that most people don’t give it a second glance. But even with the most basic of binoculars it becomes a world in its own right – so take a look at it with binoculars.

Using typical 10-power binoculars this is the view you can get of the Moon at 7 pm on 5 February 2025. There are just masses of craters to be seen. Let’s just pick out a few of the most obvious – but to do that here’s a larger version.

If you look again tomorrow night these craters won’t be as obvious, but there will be new features to identify. Click on the links below to see a large map of the features for each evening.
You can view and download images for any other day and time of the year from https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5415/
As the Moon move towards full, which is on 12 February, most of the craters become less obvious. At full Moon itself you can hardly see any of them! The shadows at all the other phases help you to pick them out.
Do you know how the Moon moves around the sky? It’s not too late to start Chasing the Moon and marking in the Moon’s position and phase as the evenings continue. Download and print out the chart and start tonight (if it’s clear!)
Five fun facts about the Moon
Most of the Moon’s craters were formed billions of years ago in the early days of the Solar System when asteroids were all over the place. Because there’s no air or water on the Moon they haven’t been worn away by erosion as on the Earth
The division between light and dark is known as the terminator. And you thought it was a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger!
We only ever see one side of the Moon because it turns on its axis in the same time that it orbits the Earth. The side we can’t see – the far side – gets as much sunlight as the side we can see. There is no one place that is the ‘dark side of the Moon’ because this depends on which side is facing the Sun.
When the Moon is full it rises exactly opposite the Sun in the sky.
Ptolemaeus on the photo above is 158 km (100 miles) across. That’s about the distance between London and Bristol (or between Birmingham and Blackpool if you prefer).
The Moon’s Orbit
Chris Pearson, Astronomy Group Leader at RAL Space, talks about the Moon’s orbit, and why it is sometimes closer to us.