3 replies to this topic

[Ch. Legrand]

Dear colleagues,

 

We are happy to announce the release of the new version 9 of the Virtual Moon Atlas (VMA).

 

Since 2022, year of the version 8 release, we have collected new datas, images and maps to add to the Atlas. We also reviewed the organization of databases and scientific layers because their large number involved rationalizing their integration into AVL. We also continued to improve the interface to make it even easier to use.

 

VMA is always available in versions for Windows and Linux.

 

You will find below a summary presenting the details of the news in this version 9.

 

We invite you to download it for free from our site and test it.

 

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

 

We hope that these new features will be useful for your observing or imaging sessions, or your personal work about the moon.

 

Regards well,

 

Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

NEWS IN VERSION 9 OF THE VIRTUAL ATLAS OF THE MOON:

 

IMPROVEMENTS OF EXISTING MODULES:

- ATLUN:
Adding new buttons giving quick access to increased number of functions
Adding the coupling of the the position and zoom between two windows displayed side by side
Redesign of the "databases" and "scientific layers" tabs to take into account their categorical reorganization
Possibility of monitoring the terminator in real time

 

- DATLUN:
Adaptation to new categories of integrated and connected bases

 

- PHOTLUN:
Total redesign of the interface of the module now presenting the images in the form of mosaics with zoom window.

NEW GENERAL TEXTURE:
- “LRO WAC Colors”: texture generated by the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter Camera team presenting the lunar formations with well differentiated colors highlighting the altitudes of the relief.

NEWS "HISTORICAL TEXTURES":
We continue to introduce in the AVL the lunar cards of the visible "vintage" face that fell in the public domain. For the V9, there is in 10 news including:
- "Mellan 1645"
- "Schmidt 1856"
- "Justus Perthes 1868"
- "Nasmyth 1885"
- “Flammarion 1887”
- “Goodacre 1910”
- "Moreux 1922"
- ...

 

SCIENTIFIC OVERLAYS:
We have reorganized the "scientific" overlays in several categories:
- Colors
- Elements
- Periods
- Temperature
- Minerals
- Topography
- Oxides
- Radioactive materials
- Magnetism
We added the "lithological china" layer & and a new version of the "Hydrogen Lunar Prospector" layer

 

NEW DATABASES:
- We have added a new database of anonymous craters GLCC 2021 established by Yiran Wang & Bo Wu (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
- We have separated the databases into two categories, between the "integrated" databases and the "connected" databases linked to the formations appointed by the International Astronomical Union
- We have introduced the pages numbers of 6 new printed atlas in the Named and Satellite databases (Kerss / Duplex / Callatay / Cambridge / Legault & Brunier / Hill)
- Update of the database of historic sites with the last 9 lunar missions carried out since 2022.

 

NEW IMAGES LIBRARIES:
We have formed 4 new images libraries:
- New image library “Best of William Pelissard”
- First drawing library “Best of Philippe Heuly”
- New “Best of Historicals” image library concerning places of landings or artificial impacts
- New “Character” image library with portraits from the free Wikipedia encyclopedia
The sets of VMA images libraries now contains nearly 12,000.

 

Thank you to all these scientists and amateurs who allow us to use their work !

 

NEW DOCUMENTATION:
The general documentation of the AVL 9 modules has been updated with the new elements and is now near 260 pages.

 

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Swamp Fox]

Thank you for all your work in providing this outstanding program!! I use it all the time.  

 

-Mark

[archival]

More interested in a 10th anniversay update of AVP out to Pluto with textures for the satellites of the outermost planets, although of course those are not needed for observers.

 

I've looked around to see if more modern textures exist but the independent texture websites seem to have disappeared, and of course not all the planets are included in the dropdown anyway so a map of Triton would not be accessible even with a texture.

 

On the other hand it looks like AVL is still backwardly compatible as far as Win7 which is a nice attitude.  Sometimes backward compatability is merely lost because of people using the latest OS with the OS provider's standard/recommended programming suites which simply precludes earlier versions because the OS provider has deliberately made backward compatability coding not included using the excuse of "security" to replace generic libraries, said security often coming bundled with telemetry spyware invasion of privacy made by the provider themselves, again using a security and support and antipiracy myth and allowing far easier hacking of systems.  So backward compatability is a nice touch for AVL 9, unless I've read the new release details wrongly.

[Steve Cox]

Thank you for the update. Just downloaded and installed over version 8. This is on a Mac, inside a Crossover bottle (win11) and everything installed fine and works great. I didn't even have to uninstall version 8 or rebuild the bottle.