Picture of moons features?

[Leegsi]

I have download the 100 top seeing from here: http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,10430.0.html

BUT I am finding it hard to work out what I am seeing.

Is there a real picture showing some main features so I get an idea of what I am looking at as a reference point.

[Kai]

Have a look here Virtual Moon Atlas

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

Its very comprehensive

[glowjet]

Virtual Moon Atlas, Being a Moon addict [not lunatic ] I would not want to be without it. well worth downloading, although it takes up a lot of space.

John.

[mike.brightmore]

Must agree. Virtual Moon atlas is a great help. Just click on a crater and it tells you which one. You can also search for features, including Apollo landing sites.

[Talitha]

JMHO, get one of the smaller downloads... the VMA's 422Mb 'Pro' version is overkill for the average lunar observer. The 6.2Mb 'Light' version is excellent for anyone just starting out, but I prefer the 14Mb 'Expert' version because it includes the libration zones.

Leegsi, the appearance of lunar features is constantly changing because of light angles and libration. If you have a photo of a specific feature it might look quite different when you're viewing.. that's why we refer to the VMA and Rukl's maps so much.

There's a site which might interest you, though. They have some 'iffy' stuff (like adverts selling acres of the Moon ), but the scroll-over images in their full moon atlas are kind of neat.

[Barry W]

does anyone know if there's a program similar to VMA for Macintosh?

[Terry]

I have to agree with Talitha, the light version is very good. What I like about it is that you can flip the image NS & EW to match what you see in the EP.

Terry

[rusirius]

I found VMA very problematic on Vista. It wouldn't work at all on my wife's laptop, and only with difficulty on mine. In the end I discovered that only the Light (non Open-GL) version would run properly. I eventually went through the upheaval of retro-grading my laptop back down to Windows XP (had lots of other issues with Vista) and found that both the Expert and the Pro versions now work very well. It is, in fact, an excellent program.

[Leegsi]

Thats great.

Just playing with it now