Space TimersFree for classrooms
Moon Countdown Timer
A real 3D Moon fills up in exactly the time you set. It's free, with no adverts and no sign-up.
// How It Works
A timer that teaches while it counts
1
Pick your time
Anything from 1 minute to 3 hours, or a Pomodoro. Pick a mode and a font, choose your alarm, then press Start.
2
Watch the Moon fill up
The Moon is the progress bar: half lit at half time, full at zero. Facts pop up as sunrise reaches famous places.
3
Time's up
The Moon glides to the centre, turning to show its far side. The numbers flash three times as the alarm sounds.
// Four Modes
One timer, four ways to use it
Classroom
The full show: facts and the alarm, any length up to an hour.
Test
Calm for tests and exams: no pop-ups and a gentle alarm.
Study
Long sessions of up to 2 hours, with a quiet alarm.
Pomodoro
25 minutes of work and a 5 minute break, four times over. In each break the Moon rewinds.
// About The Model
The real Moon, not a drawing
The Moon in this timer is a 3D model drawn live in your browser. Its colours come from the camera on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and its hills and craters from the same spacecraft's laser altimeter, which measured the height of the whole surface.
The light moves the way sunlight really does across a month, squeezed into your timer: from a thin crescent with the rest glowing faintly in earthshine, through half lit, to full. At zero you get the one view nobody on Earth ever has: the far side.
// Questions
About the Moon timer
Is this the real Moon?
Yes. Its colours and its hills and craters come from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Only the timing is squeezed: a month of sunlight plays out in the time you set.
Why does it fill up from the right?
A growing Moon looks like this from the northern hemisphere: sunlight creeps across it from the right, night after night, until it's full.
Why does it turn round at the end?
The Moon always keeps the same face towards Earth, so nobody here ever sees the far side. At zero the timer turns it once so the class can.
Will it work on the classroom TV?
Yes. The whole timer scales as one picture, so it looks the same on any screen. Press F for full screen.
// Think It Through
Moon puzzles to try
// Watch
