The animation on the left was made from fifty individual images or simulated views of the Moon over one month.

The Moon generally has one hemisphere facing the Earth, due to tidal locking. Therefore, humans' first view of far side of the Moon resulted from lunar exploration in the 1960s. However, this simple picture is only approximately true: Over time, slightly more than half (about 59%) of the Moon's surface is seen from Earth due to libration.