Lunar Viewing

[Joseph]

I had some great observations of the moon last Saturday using my 8" f5 reflector. The view of along the S. terminator (w/ 18mm ep + 2.8x barlow + polarizer) was fantastic.

I can identify some of the larger features, such as Tycho, Mare Nubium, etc. However, I'm having difficulty identifying some of the high-relief, crater-in-crater features and other surface details which were casting long shadows.

I would like to know if there is a planetarium program available (hopefully free) capable of displaying various lunar phases as seen through a typical telescope. Media in my very modest library shows labeled lunar features as seen at the full Moon ...not very useful for identifying things along the terminator, where everything looks quite different. I did find an on-line resource that is somewhat useful:

http://www.astrosurf.com/cidadao/index.htm

Yet it would be even better to have a study-tool where you can simulate the actual view through the scope.

Does anyone have a planetarium tool like this?

Cheers,
J.

[Jon Hickman]

Simple app:

http://www.softaddress.com/moon_phase_c ... /index.php

Another simple one from Google:

http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/moonphase.html

[Dale Smith]

The site www.astronomywebguide.com is a compilation of links to various astronomy related websites. It is useful for one stop shopping. I clicked on Solar System and then Lunar Links. There were many links listed and I did not go through them all. I will leave that task to you.

One that caught my eye was the Consolidated Lunar Atlas at
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/cla/ . Click on Part I–Low Oblique Photography and a picture of the moon will appear. Click on various parts of that picture and various higher resolution photos taken at oblique angles (i.e. moon not full) will appear.

[Huggy]

Virtual Moon Atlas is the one I use. I think it is very feature rich.

http://www.ap-i.net/avl/en/start

[Joseph]

The Virtual Moon Atlas is the resource I was looking for. Once you get past the language translation issues, this is a fun program.

THX Ken(Huggy)