Phases of the Moon
 
Yon rising Moon that looks for us again—
How oft hereafter will she wax and wane;
    How oft hereafter rising look for us
Through this same Garden—and for one in vain!
— Omar Khayyám,   Rubáiyát   #100

I made this animated gif 12 Jul 96 using 12-hour images downloaded from the
U n i t e d   S t a t e s   N a v a l   O b s e r v a t o r y

These "Virtual Reality Moon Phases" were created from ray-traced images of the Moon.
A Clementine spacecraft mosaic of the lunar surface was mapped onto a sphere, and scenes
were rendered as a virtual Sun "orbited" the Moon. The depiction of lunar surface features
suffers geometric distortion but the terminator is correct with respect to the spherical Moon.

phase animation -- click on moon
animation
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