My Moon Phase animation was created by combining a photo taken each night through the phases of the moon. One difficulty is that the moon rises at different times. The full moon rises at sunset, the half moon about midnight and the new moon is only visible just before sunrise so I had to get up before dawn quite a few times. Also, the moon rolls across the sky so what was the top after sunset becomes the bottom before sunrise. This means that the images had to be rotated to align. (And yes, it's not perfect).
Clearly there's no dark side of the moon (sorry Pink Floyd) but there is a far side which can't be seen from earth. Check out the far side here.
The full moon looks smooth and flat like a plate but at other times, sunlight shines diagonally across the surface illuminating the craters. The shot below was taken eight days after the new moon.
Copyright Tim Rosser 2016
Home (moon)