Tracy Ponder, age 13, of Venice., Florida, for her question:  

Who named the mountains of the moon?

Maybe a few early astronomers thought of naming the light and dark features on the face of the moon. But nobody bothered to report their efforts. In any case, they had no way of knowing that there were any mountains on the moon. This information was revealed in 1609, when Galileo first focused a little homemade telescope on the lunar landscape. It magnified only about 30 times. But he beheld the rugged mountains, plus several somewhat confusing images of other lunar features.

Astronomers of the 1600s used the newfangled telescope to scan the skies. For the first time, they beheld the light and dark patches on the moon as features of lunar geography. They correctly identified the rugged ranges as lunar mountains. But they incorrectly identified the first shadowy areas as lunar seas. They named the moon's mountains for familiar ranges on the earth. However, this was an age when scholars loved Latin terms    and the Latin word for sea is mare. They called their misidentified seas marias and gave each one a fancy Latin name.

In 1651, Johannes Riccioli published a lunar atlas, based on observations made at the Italian University of Bologna. In it he used an original system to name the moon's geographical features. Other observers around this time suggested systems of their own and a few high level disputes arose. But Riccioli's system of lunar nomenclature survived, perhaps because it was the best one. As telescopes were improved, more details were added but we still use his basic plan.

Of course., Riccioli's lunar maps included only the side facing the earth. His excellent details were observed through small telescopes and drawn by hand. His system for naming the geographical features is based on four lunar hemispheres    north and south, east and west. He named the visible craters for scholars. Those in the northern hemisphere were named for Aristarchus and other wise ones of the ancient world. Craters in the southern hemisphere were named for Tycho and other scholars living more or less at the time of Riccioli.

For some reason unknown, he invented fancy moody names for the lunar maria. Mare Tranquillitatis and all maria in the western hemisphere suggest peace and pleasure. Mare Nubium and all maria in the Who named the mountains   for Thursday, April 1, 1971

Four years before Riccioli published his lunar atlas, Hevelius of Danzig had named some of the lunar mountains for ranges on the earth. Riccioli kept a few of these and extended the list to complete his picture with names of his own choice. The Lunar Apennines, Alps, Caucasus and other lunar ranges still bear the same names inscribed in Riccioli's atlas, way back in 1651.

Then in 1959, a Soviet spacecraft orbited the moon and relayed back photographs of the far side, never yet seen by man. Naturally, the outstanding features were given prestigious Russian names. But of all things, the flat shadowy areas were named for seas     even at this late date when everybody knows better. This was, of course, a 20th century tribute to Riccioli.  One site on the moon is known as Silver Spur named after Dr. Leon Silver a geologist from Cal Tech that trained the astronauts on interpreting the lunar geology.