Due to a lack of atmosphere, the temperature at the surface of the moon varies wildly, depending mostly on the day-night cycle. In the day, the temperature of the Moon averages 107°C, although it rises as high as 123°C. The night cools the surface to an average of -153°C, or -233°C in the permanently shaded South Polar Basin. A typical non-polar minimum temperature is -181°C (at the Apollo 15 site). Regions with wild variations in temperature are not preferable for designed a lunar base, where humans have to be able to live round-the-clock, and thus spots with more habitable climates have to be located. Now, scientists have perhaps found such a perfect spot at the lunar North Pole.

Lunar Illumination Map (Courtesy: MSNBC)Any such region should have permanent sunlight, so as to allow a) round-the-clock solar energy, and b) a near-constant temperature. Such spots can only be found near the lunar poles; in particular, scientists have identified that the best spot to settle on the moon may be on the northern rim of Peary crater, close to the lunar North Pole. The analysis, to be published in the April 14 issue of the journal Nature, is based on 53 images from the spacecraft Clementine, which orbited the moon for 71 days in 1994.
Unlike Earth, whose extreme tilt causes seasons, the Moon's rotational axis is almost perfectly upright, deviating just 1.5 percent from the main plane of the solar system that extends outward from the Sun's belly. On Earth, summer means constant sunlight at the North Pole, and winter plunges the Arctic into permanent darkness. But on the moon, theorists have long suspected there might be high points from which the sun is always visible.
The southern pole also has such sweet spots. However, the northern pole has more water, and that is a critical point that tilted the decision in favor of the northern spot.