Full Moon Maker Progress as of 9:55am CST, April 20

This is Global Astronomy Month (GAM)! Here at CosmoQuest, we are partnering with the wonderful folks over at Astronomers Without Borders to define ways to challenge you to get involved.

Right now, a lot of us might be teased as Moon Mapping Lunatics, and in coming up with a way to engage in you and everyone else in GAM, we decided to spread our lunacy.

Right now, the new moon can’t be seen in the sky, but it can be seen by the orbiting Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and in the data we have from that mission.

Our challenge to you is to try and observe 1 million craters on the Moon before the Full Moon again rises in the evening sky on May 5.

We’re going to have prizes for the 10 CosmoQuest community members who make the observations closest to each interval of 100,000, and for 10 additional randomly selected community members who participate in this challenge. Prizes include Surly Amy pendants, Astrosphere posters, and LRO lithographs!

We’d ask you to go online, contribute to science, and then go outside and with your eyes (no cheating with a telescope or binoculars now!) help us spot that first sliver of returning moon. Each of your contributions is going to help us build a new scientific understanding of the Moon, and as your data comes in it will illuminate our virtual moon in the  Full Moon Maker.

And when you do spot that full moon, see if you can get a picture to share in the forums!

Help us illuminate the moon with new scientific discoveries 1 crater at a time. We challenge you to discover 1 million craters during April’s waxing moon. How many craters can you mark?

Participate in the Million Crater Challenge and become a Moon Mapping Lunatic today!