When royalty pays a visit, you can bet television cameras will be involved—especially on the moon.

The Kaguya (Selene) lunar orbiter, a Japanese spacecraft nicknamed after a legendary moon princess, launched in 2007 carrying two high-definition TV cameras, which it used to capture stunning video and pictures of the lunar surface.

Although the mission ended in 2009, this week the Japanese space agency released the entire haul of digital images captured by Kaguya during its lifetime. Some of the images have never been seen before by the public.

The story of Kaguya dates back to the 10th century and tells of a strange, beautiful girl discovered by a bamboo cutter and raised as his daughter. The child turns out to