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sage
Reged: 05/27/06
Posts: 237
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I'm convinced that I would do much more lunar viewing if only it wasn't so difficult to read objects on the maps. I'm using the book with maps by Peter Grecco. It's a great book, but I'm always having to invert what's on the maps from what's in the ep (geez, what if I had to reverse as well as invert!). Seems like all moon maps work differently in this respect. Can anyone recommend a good, simple set of lunar maps that I'll easily be able to read. I'm using a refractor with a 90* diagonal.
Thanks
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chexmix
sage
Reged: 12/01/04
Posts: 348
Loc: Arlington, MA, USA
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I just ordered the S & T map from Amazon - I will let you know my impressions when I get it ...
I really like the Peter Grego book, too, if it's the one I have (The Moon and How to Observe It).
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8" Discovery DHQ
Celestron C102-HD
9x63 Orion mini-giants
(2) Frontally-placed visual organs, incl. lens, vitreous/aqueous humors, assorted rods, cones.
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sage
Reged: 05/27/06
Posts: 237
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The main thing I'm concerned about is that the view through my ep will be the same as that in the map. Come to think of it, I might have an old National Geographic map of the moon.
Let me know how you like your S&T.
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ColoHank
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/07/07
Posts: 670
Loc: western Colorado
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I have two S&T moon maps. The larger version offers a more detailed naked-eye orientation with about a thousand features identified. The map on the smaller version is reversed, but not inverted, and thus matches the view through my eyepiece. It is less detailed, with fewer than 300 features identified. Both are folded and laminated. In actual practice, I find myself using each of them -- one to located things, and the other for more information. It's a shame, in this age of digital editing and printing, that they don't produce the large version in a greater variety of orientations.
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Questar 3.5 standard - pyrex and BB coatings
Powerguide II
8mm, 12mm, 16mm, 24mm and 32mm Brandons
modified Bogen 3030 w/ homebuilt wedge
Homebuilt Galileo scope and very large and ugly homemade tripod
other odds and ends, including iPod Touch with StarMap Pro (what a marvelous combo)...
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"Nothing exists but atoms and empty space. Everything else is opinion."
Titus Lucretius Carus 99-55 B.C.
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Scott Beith
SRF
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 37975
Loc: Frederick, MD
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I use VMA.
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   SLAP Observer (TMB130SS, SV102V{LOMO Lens}, SV80ED)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
"The measure of a man’s greatness is not determined by what he accomplishes for himself, but by what he accomplishes for others.” -- Some Bald Guy
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sage
Reged: 05/27/06
Posts: 237
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In relation to what I see through the ep, I have to invert upside down the maps in the Grecco book. I don't have to reverse side to side though.
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sage
Reged: 05/27/06
Posts: 237
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Scott,
What is VMA?
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alser2
member
Reged: 02/23/08
Posts: 95
Loc: cork, ireland
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I'll jump in here. VMA is the virtual moon atlas, worth downloading. theres a link somewhere in the forum but do a web search. get the expert version if you can, its great and pretty easy to use.
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Celestron Nexstar 6SE
Celestron Firstscope 114 EQ + Solar filter
Celestron 12x60 Skymaster Binos
4mm, 6.4mm, 32mm, 40mm Plossl, 2x barlow lens
10x, 20x, 25x celestron eyepiece
moon filter and various colour filters
seben LP filter
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Mare Nectaris
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/09/08
Posts: 1472
Loc: Toijala, Finland
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Hi,
Virtual Moon Atlas (VMA) is a freeware just recently celebrating its 6th birthday by announcing version 4.0 for download. The software is made by Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley, who have also made the very famous Cartes du Ciel / Sky Charts.
The new release of VMA has very beautiful set of high quality amateur Lunar photos by Wes Higgins and Paolo Lazzarotti. The pics are easily manageable by a VMA integrated database interface.
Also a very good Lunar analysis program is Lunar Terminator Visualization Tool or LTVT by Jim Mosher.
The program is also freeware, and it has an unique and powerful ability to let the user calibrate his or her own photos into the cartographic projection and analyze the pics with regard to shadow lengths and Sun angle. There is also a set of textures and high quality calibrated reference pictures available for analysis.
See also Jim's announcement on LTVT wiki space launching and an example of my learning to use LTVT and sharing the experience. You can also look for Jim's expert analysis for instance in here.
Also a very nice resource in learning about the Moon is Alan Chu's Photographic Moon Book, that Mardi Clark kindly mirrors on the Whitepeak Observatory site.
Be well!
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Share - and you shall have it all
Timo Keski-Petäjä
CtheMoon
Observation shelter KuuMaja (MoonHut)
TAL 250K*Celestron C8-N*SkyWatcher Skymax 150 Pro*TAL1(Mizar)*EQ6 Pro SynScan*Celestron Advanced GT (CG-5 GOTO)*Baader Hyperion Clickstop Zoom 8-24*17 mm UWA-70*TeleVue BIG 2x Barlow*Celestron 2x Barlow Ultima SV Series
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Scott Beith
SRF
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 37975
Loc: Frederick, MD
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Yep the VMA Pro is what I use now.
I used the VMA Expert for quite a while.
Wonderful program.
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SLAP Observer (TMB130SS, SV102V{LOMO Lens}, SV80ED)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke.
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
"The measure of a man’s greatness is not determined by what he accomplishes for himself, but by what he accomplishes for others.” -- Some Bald Guy
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Avatar
sage
Reged: 05/27/06
Posts: 237
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Thanks folks. Lots of great info. I'll check these out these sources.
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Uwe Pilz
sage
Reged: 05/16/08
Posts: 264
Loc: Leipzig, Germany
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Quote:
I'm convinced that I would do much more lunar viewing if only it wasn't so difficult to read objects on the maps. I'm using the book with maps by Peter Grecco. It's a great book, but I'm always having to invert what's on the maps from what's in the ep (geez, what if I had to reverse as well as invert!). Seems like all moon maps work differently in this respect. Can anyone recommend a good, simple set of lunar maps that I'll easily be able to read. I'm using a refractor with a 90* diagonal.
Thanks
Here in Germany you can buy the "little Rükl", which has additional inverted maps. I'm trying to look for at amazon.com.... nothing.
Try to order via amazon.de:
http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_ss_w?__mk_de_DE=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords="kleiner+mondatlas"
The maps itselves are rougher than those of the "big" Rükl, but good for first orientation.
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Uwe Pilz from Leipzig, Germany. Astronomical pages (in german, but easy to navigate)
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