Blank Map of the Moon – Near Side to Print and Label

All 20 places on the diagram

Show the list

Start here: the largest seas 8

Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum) The largest dark plain of old lava, down the left side.
Sea of Showers (Mare Imbrium) The big round sea at the upper left of center.
Sea of Serenity (Mare Serenitatis) The round sea just right of the top center.
Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis) The wide sea right of center, where Apollo 11 landed.
Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium) The oval sea alone near the right edge, above the middle.
Sea of Fecundity (Mare Fecunditatis) The long sea near the right edge, below the middle.
Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) The sea below the center, toward the left.
Sea of Cold (Mare Frigoris) The long thin sea across the top.

All ten seas 2

Sea of Nectar (Mare Nectaris) The small round sea at the lower right, under Tranquility.
Sea of Moisture (Mare Humorum) The small round sea at the lower left.

Craters 7

Tycho A crater with long bright rays, named for Tycho Brahe.
Copernicus A rayed crater named for the astronomer Copernicus.
Kepler A crater named for Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer.
Aristarchus A crater named for Aristarchus, a Greek astronomer.
Plato A crater named for the Greek philosopher Plato.
Clavius A crater named for Christopher Clavius, a German mathematician.
Grimaldi A crater named for Francesco Maria Grimaldi, an Italian astronomer.

Mountains and a landing site 3

Montes Apenninus (lunar Apennines) A mountain range named after the Apennines on Earth.
Montes Alpes (lunar Alps) A mountain range named after the Alps on Earth.
Apollo 11 landing site Where people first landed on the Moon, in July 1969.

How this list was compiled: Every name, its meaning and its position checked on 2026-10-01. (1) International Astronomical Union, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, hosted by the US Geological Survey: the Moon center points file linked from https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/GIS_Downloads (each feature's approved name, the origin of the name, its center latitude and longitude, its extent and its diameter). (2) NASA Science, Moon Viewing Guide, https://science.nasa.gov/moon/viewing-guide/ (the dark areas are solidified lava, called lunar seas or maria; the craters Copernicus, Kepler, Aristarchus and Tycho and the rays of Copernicus and Tycho). (3) NASA Science, Moon Facts, https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/ (Tycho and Clavius). (4) NASA, Apollo 11, https://www.nasa.gov/mission/apollo-11/ (the landing in July 1969; Tranquility Base). (5) Wikipedia: List of plains on the Moon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plains_on_the_Moon; Lunar mare; Near side of the Moon; Plato (crater); Grimaldi (crater); Clavius (crater); Montes Apenninus; Montes Alpes; Tranquility Base. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01, each feature placed by its latitude and longitude in the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature on an orthographic projection, with outlines simplified by hand. Own original drawing; no photograph or map is traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A blank moon map to print, with north at the top. Twenty places are drawn and none is named: ten seas, seven craters, two mountain ranges and one landing site. Seven of the smaller marks have a line running out to write on.

Read the full guide

Start with the patches

The patches are the lunar seas. The longest, down the left side, is the Ocean of Storms, and the thin band across the top is the Sea of Cold. The star sits on the edge of the Sea of Tranquility, so that sea and the Apollo 11 site can be written together.

Then the rings and the peaks

Rings are craters. Tycho, near the bottom, has the longest rays, and Clavius is the large ring under it with two small rings inside. The two rows of peaks on the rim of the Sea of Showers are the lunar Apennines, the longer row, and the lunar Alps.

Hold the sheet beside a full Moon: from northern latitudes the patches match, with the Sea of Crises at the upper right.

Questions and answers

Which side of the Moon is on the map?

The near side. The Moon rotates at the same rate as it goes round the Earth, so the same hemisphere faces us all the time. People never saw the far side until a spacecraft flew past it in 1959.

What are the light areas of the Moon called?

The highlands. On this map they are the ground outside the outlined patches, which are the seas. No highland region is named on the sheet, but Clavius, the large ring at the bottom, lies in the southern highlands.

Is every sea drawn on the map named?

No. Ten seas are named on the key. Smaller ones, among them Mare Vaporum and the bay Sinus Iridum, are drawn so the face looks right and are left without a name.

Does the blank map of the Moon come with an answer key?

Yes. The key is the same map with all twenty names. A sea is written in English with its Latin name in brackets, as in Sea of Showers (Mare Imbrium), so either form can be marked right.