04/15/2026
From the archives to the present-day Moon 🌙
Over the past few weeks, the Digital Production Group has been conducting pre‑conservation scans of the Atlas Photographique de la Lune plates. Created between 1896 and 1910 by astronomers Maurice Loewy and Pierre Henri Puiseux at the Observatoire de Paris, these plates were captured with the Grand Équatorial Coudé telescope and record the Moon across different lunar phases.
Currently in the studio are plates XXIII–###, each revealing intricate details of the Moon’s surface—craters, mountain ranges, and the dark plains early astronomers called “oceans.” As excitement built around Artemis II and a crater proposed to be named Carroll, we invited UVA librarian and astronomer Ricky Patterson to take a closer look with us.
While the plates presently in the studio don’t offer a direct view of Carroll, Plate XXVII—dated 26 April 1898, 7:09 p.m. (Paris time)—captures the Moon’s opposite edge. Ricky noted that while the same side of the Moon largely faces Earth due to tidal locking, a subtle effect known as libration causes the Moon to appear to rock slightly. This allows us occasional glimpses just beyond the lunar edge, where Carroll is located. With that in mind, Ricky noted that plate LVII in the Atlas may indeed show the area of the Moon containing Carroll.
Welcome back to earth Artemis II and crew.- Stacey Evans
