Studying the Moon

Studying the Moon
Early man was fascinated by the Moon and ancient temples and stone circles were built to line up with the Moon and the Sun at certain times of the year. In 1609 Galileo Galilei was the first person to use the recently invented telescope to study the Moon. The first photograph of the Moon was taken in 1839 by John Draper, shortly after the invention of photography.

Exploration of the Moon
The first spacecraft to pass near the Moon was the unmanned Soviet Luna 1. Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon’s surface and Luna 3 was the first spacecraft to photograph the Far Side of the Moon. This was all in 1959. In 1961 the Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into outer space in his spacecraft Vostok 3KA-3. In 1966 the unmanned Soviet Luna 9 made a successful soft landing on the Moon.