Sketch of the Eastern Hemisphere of the Moon

Almost a century before the first telescope was invented, da Vinci was able to sketch a relativly accuracte depiction of the moon's surface.  He recognized that, rather than its surface being smooth, the moon has many "spots" that cover its exterior.  He mentions in a notebook entry that his reasoning stems from the difference in appearence of the moon when examining it from different perspectives, such as east and west, while analyzing it from the same perspective, the appearence remains the same. It should also be noted that his entries make no note of lunar crators, so the origion of these "spots" remained a mystery to him.

Work Cited:

Wholelotofboehm. (2017, September 16). Craters on the Moon (or Science in Very Unlikely Places). Retrieved from http://tudortelescope.blogspot.com/2017/09/craters-on-moon-or-science-i…

Reaves, G., & Pedretti, C. (n.d.). Leonardo Da-Vinci Drawings of the Surface Features of the Moon. Retrieved from http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1987JHA....18...55R/0000057.00…