![]() ![]() Similarly, I didn’t think much about the groundwork that went into mapping the Moon until I ended up at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. I eventually spent my career studying rocks from space. But when I got the chance to study Apollo samples in graduate school, it’s not surprising that I gravitated to them. Like most of us who watched all those missions, I didn’t really expect to go into space science or aerospace engineering. Later they used images from robotic spacecraft to the Moon to produce a series of increasingly sophisticated atlases of the lunar surface.Īs a child, I was focused on the accomplishments of the astronauts, starting with the day in 1961 that the principal burst into my kindergarten classroom to tell us that Alan Shepard had been launched into space, and culminating in the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. Suddenly, the niche pursuit of making maps of the Moon had turned into a national priority.įor the next several years, Kuiper’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory produced progressively better images of the Moon, using telescopes built for the purpose. Kennedy announced that a national goal for the decade was to send a man to the Moon and back safely. There he could take advantage of the region’s mountaintops and clear skies, and the university’s willingness to move into a field of study that defied traditional departmental boundaries. Kuiper proceeded, though, and by 1960, he had moved his small operation to the University of Arizona in Tucson. Furthermore, Kuiper wanted to make a map, and that’s the sort of thing that geologists, not astronomers, do. After all, telescopes were designed to look at distant objects, and the Moon is rather close, and boring as well, since its appearance doesn’t change. I ditched for another app that, while worse at showing labels, gave me the detail necessary to identify features accurately.That was indicative of the astronomical community’s general attitude toward the Moon. Indeed, the in app chart is such low resolution that I had a hard time identifying craters because identifying details were missing. When out observing with my small (130mm) reflector Telescope, I can clearly see much smaller details than shown in this image. + This turned out to be a BIG one for me: Lowest resolution imagery or any of the moon maps. + All imagery has a good (though static) lighting angle such that terrain relief is clear. + Full 3D globe if you want or explore from other angles. + Has upside-down & mirror mode, and night vision (red) mode. + Provides extra data (including libration plot), not just the map itself! + Dynamic labeling based on zoom (clearest labeling I’ve seen among apps!) + Takes into account libration and viewers position Very featureful, but low rez images makes this useless with telescope If you fancy trying to land on the Moon, try Apollo Eagle, a simulation of the last 50,000 feet of the Apollo 11 landing. Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn atlases are also available on the App Store!Īlso there is Planisphere, a star charting app, available on the App Store! ![]() You can swipe left and right on the phase view to go backwards and forwards a day and on the libration chart to go backwards and forwards a month. In addition, information about the current Moon phase and libration are provided. Over 1800 named features are included as well as 26 spacecraft that reached the surface of the Moon. The Moon globe can be shown with north or south at the top or inverted to suit different telescope views. There is also a realtime mode that will update to the current time. The phase can be switched off and the far side is shown in a slightly darker shade of grey.ĭate, time and location can be changed. The feature database is searchable and can move the globe to a searched feature. You can switch to a 'Globe' mode that allows you to spin the Moon around to see far side features. Moon Atlas displays the phase and libration of the Moon from your chosen location and renders these on the globe. You can double tap on the labels to get more information about a particular feature. As you zoom in more labels appear as finer detail comes into view. ![]() This is a rendered sphere and not a static map image. Moon Atlas is an astronomy application that lets you use pinch and finger gestures to manipulate a 3D globe of the Moon. ![]()
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