SMART-1 video of Kepler crater

This animation, made from images taken by the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows Kepler crater on the Moon.

AMIE obtained this sequence on 13 January 2006 from a distance ranging between 1613 and 1702 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution between 146 and 154 metres per pixel (the separated images can be downloaded here: AMI_EAE3_001775_00013_00017.JPG;
AMI_EAE3_001775_00014_00017.JPG;
AMI_EAE3_001775_00015_00017.JPG;
AMI_EAE3_001775_00016_00017.JPG;
Kepler
AMI_EAE3_001775_00018_00017.JPG ).

The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 37.8º South and longitude 9.0º East. Kepler is a small young crater situated between Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Insularum. It has a diameter of 32 km and it is 2.6 kilometres deep.
This particular sequence of images demonstrates the so called ‘tracking mode’ of SMART-1 spacecraft, used to track a fixed target when flying over it. To stay within the thermal constraints, the spacecraft had to change its roll during the images acquisition, thus the image is slightly rotated when passing from one frame to the next.