Half Moon in Broward

Half Moon in Broward

Lunar globes are rare and wonderful. That's how I started the March 9, 2004 LPOD describing a lunar hemisphere model in Tucson. Moon globes and even half globes still are wonderful but there are more around than I realized. This one is in the Buehler Planetarium at the Broward Community College in Davie, Broward, Florida. It was made by Rand McNally to be used in TV broadcasts during the Apollo period. Broward County is recently known for voting machines that count backwards, but even southern Florida basked in the glory 30 plus years ago as rockets bound for the Moon were launched from Florida sands. The vertical relief of this lunar model is exaggerated - as is necessary for a visually interesting model - for the Moon is actually relatively flat. For example, the 97 km wide crater Arzachel (shown near the bottom of the mouseover image) is 4 km deep - only 1/24th it's diameter!