Hank, we all have these problems - that there is no "mental map" for the terrain to help us to visualise it as a 3D surface and the visual "cues" sometimes don't work.

Personally, I use craters as a guide. if they look like spherical blisters or domes, then I'm not visualising it correctly.

What I then do is try rotating 90 degrees (several times - sometimes it "snaps" in from a lighting angle that *shouldn't* work, but still does.

And if rotating fails, try a negative image.

{of course, you will need some good image manipulation software...)

Usually, once you've convinced your brain about the "way up", it sticks, and you can go back to a less drastic *perversion* of the original image...