Dark Side of the Moon, Captured on Video for the First Time

One of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has finally captured the far side (or the dark side, if you're poetically inclined) of the Moon on video. So far, no Cybertronian spacecraft was found.

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide (900 kilometer) impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side.
The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93-mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact.

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It might have added something to the post, to note that the first pictures of the moon's far side were taken in 1965, and quite often since then, including films taken by American astronauts on the moon missions. Sure, films are different from videos, but stil!

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Mikee is right, I saw him on the dark side of the moon in the '60s. This is probably just a sped up sequence of stills anyway. I guess NASA has too much spare time on its hands these days. I fear the heady days of manned space exploration are behind us. Robots and the engineers who create them shall become our heroes.

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Whitcwa on some of the manned missions cine cameras were carried by the crew, so it could well be that the films are actual films rather than still sequences.

Remember at times of a new moon the far side will be very well illuminated and as such will be easy to film.