Sure, this was the weekly topic three years ago, but who says it can’t be resurrected?
I mentioned a few days ago that I could illustrate something better, and now I’m keeping my promise. We’ll start with an image from several years back, with new annotations.
With the light angle of approaching 1st quarter, waxing crescent now, Theophilus crater stands out quite clearly as it reaches its own personal sunrise, and Langrenus has the barest hint of shadow from one wall. We now compare this to the image that I uploaded earlier, again with annotations.
It’s rotated, but that’s what the moon does as it traverses our sky – or more specifically, our viewing angle rotates as the Earth does. But now you can see that Langrenus is slightly more distinct, but Theophilus virtually disappears, only visible as a faint circle with a dot in it. This shows how the full moon loses so much detail, texture, and shaping, since the direct light disguises most of the surface irregularities that the lower light angles of other phases will enhance.
Maybe one of these days I’ll see if I have enough moon pics to do a full animation of the phases tracking across. It’ll be a royal pain in the ass due to the different angles, just like this, and the different colors from atmospheric effects, but it’s sure to garner recognition and acclaim, right?