First Image of the Moon by Chang'e-1

Credit: China National Space Administration

Recently, Japan launched its first moon probe, Kaguya (Selene), which has taken some very beautiful HDTV images of the Earth and Moon. Yesterday (November 26th), the China National Space Administration released the first photo taken by their new lunar orbiter, Chang'e-1. According to Chuck Wood at LPOD, "...the first image of the Moon taken by China’s Chang’e orbiter stretches from dark-floored Hanno H to Helmholtz at bottom left. This view of the southeast limb is actually a composite of 19 frames, each 60 km wide, taken on Nov 20 and 21. When available at full size the mosaic will have a nominal resolution of 120 m, roughly comparable to that of Lunar Orbiter IV (58 - 134 m), Clementine (100 m) and SMART-1 (50 m)."

BTW, do you think the person who came up with the CNSA logo (the blue logo on top) may be a Star Trek fan? ;)