Mare Desiderii

left|thumb|A stamp from the Soviet Union showing a map based on the Luna 3 images.

Mare Desiderii (Latin dēsīderiī, the "Sea of Desires") was an area of the Moon named after Luna 3 returned the first pictures of the far side in 1959. Mechta was an alternate name for the Luna 1 spacecraft. The feature was also called the Dream Sea or the Sea of Dreams. Other references called it Mare Somnii, Latin for the Sea of Dreams.

It was later determined to be an optical illusion in the low quality image. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) removed the name from the list of lunar nomenclature in 1960.

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