1
This is a one day old moon. More precisely, it's 1 day 15 hours and 35 minutes. That's how much time has passed from the moment of New Moon till this picture was taken. One day moons can be difficult to spot. They are very close to the horizon and visible for just a few minutes after sunset. This moon was 39 hours old but the world record young moon sighting is closer to 12 hours with a telescope and around 15 hours with binoculars. This picture was taken with a Nikon Coolpix 885 digital camera held up to the eyepiece of a Celestron C-90 Astro telescope on July 11th 2002 at 10:03 pm EDT in Holt, Michigan.
2
This is a two day old moon. Some craters are starting to come into view as the terminator moves across the face of the moon. The terminator is the line that separates the light and dark halves of the moon. The large smooth circular area is the Sea of Crises. The photo was taken with a Celestron C5 telescope. Photo date: July 12th, 2002 10:07 pm EDT. Moon's age: 2 days 15 hours 40 minutes.
3
This moon is 3 days old. More detail can be seen along the terminator. If you were on the moon at the terminator, it would be sunrise. Due to the low angle of the sun, shadows cast by craters and mountains are very long. This tends to make features near the terminator look exaggerated. The photo was taken on July 13th 2002 at 9:52 pm with the C5 telescope. Moon's age: 3 days 15 hours 24 minutes.
4
This moon is 4 days old. The photo was taken on July 14th 2002 at 10:29 pm with my 8 inch Newtonian telescope. The smooth darker areas are some of the lunar seas. The famous Sea of Tranquility is now partly in view, along with the Sea of Fertility and the lesser known Marsh of Sleep. Moon's age: 4 days 16 hours 1 minutes.
5
This moon is 5 days old. It's a waxing crescent moon. The craters Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina are the three big craters on the terminator. The photo was taken at 10:23 pm EDT on June 15th, 2002. The telescope used was a Celestron 8" f/10 schmidt-cassegrain.
Click here to see a photo of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina taken the same night through the 24" MSU telescope. The Sea of Tranquility is the large smooth area north of Theophilus. Apollo 11 landed on the southwest edge of this lunar sea on July 20th 1969. Moon's age: 5 days 2 hours 35 minutes.
6
Here's the Moon as seen through the eyepiece of a Celestron C-90 Maksutov 90mm f/11 telescope.
This moon is six days old. You can see that the terminator has moved a little west since the five day moon. The craters Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina are now in full sunlight and are not as easy to see. The photo was taken at 10:37 pm EDT on June 16th, 2002. Moon's age: 6 days 2 hours 49 minutes.
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Last Quarter to New
