Years and centuries goes by while planets make a revolution around the Sun. Month after month the Moon grows older and arises again. And seconds fly past with sparks of meteors.

Amazing spectacle in the sky never ends, though it is often hard to observe it or even notice it. So the Cosmos Motion project tries to collect and keep living, animated impressions of the most beatiful celestial shows.

The Inconstant Moon

A slightest smile of a lunar crescent, a two-horned ship of the First Quarter, a shining ball of the Full Moon - it seems that the Moon never looks the same way twice. Though the alternation of lunar phases is well known, it is still one of the most spellbinding celestial wonders.

If it was possible to fit a lunar month in a minute, how the change of lunar phases would look like? First just after the New Moon an extremely thin crescent appears in the dusk sky. Then the sunlight starts to spread across the surface of the Moon. As it runs further it lights up new craters, mountains and seas on the lunar disk.

The lunar phases animation project

The Cosmos Motion project starts development of a new animation of the Moon. It will be focused on the change of lunar phases during March and April 2011. On this page you can find the current version of the animation. 11 frames for this animation were captured by members of the project: Vladimir Knyaz and Simone Bolzoni.

You can also download high quality animation:

• MOV 1200x1100 (1.6 Mb)
• AVI (ZIP archive) 1200x1100 (3.8 Mb)

Unfortunately there are very few places where the sky could stay clear for a month. So it is almost impossible to capture lunar phases consequentially for a single person.

The Old Moon in the New Moon arms. March 7, 2011. Photo: The Cosmos Motion project.

The Cosmos Motion project invites amateur astronomers to participate in a creation of an animation of lunar phases. To contribute to the animation please e-mail your photos of the Moon at motioncosmos@gmail.com

According to the project the final animation will show:

• A complete change of lunar phases during lunation March 4 - April 3, 2011.
• Librations of the Moon that will be visible during this lunation.
• Clair-Obscur effects on the Moon's surface. For example: Lunar X, shadows of the Alps, etc.

Photos required for the animation:

Any images of the Moon captured from March 4 to April 3 could help to complete the animation. High resolution photos or mosaics showing the illuminated part of the Moon completely will be extremely valuable. Please submit the following information with the photo:

• Date and time the photo was captured
• Focal length of a telescope or camera lenses
• Camera type
• Type of the color filter (if used)

The Cosmos Motion project thanks very much all participated astronomers - the real authors of the animations. You can find all participants in a members list. Also author would like to express special gratitude to António Cidadão whose wonderful animation inspired the creation of the new project.

Other projects: