Locating craters on the Moon

[Grump Martian]

I looked forward to this evenings event with the Suns light shining through the wall of Hesiodus crater. Thanks to the heads up post by Nyctimene.

I studied my Hamlyn Atlas of The Moon. But found that my understanding of the phases and how to locate craters through a refractor were poor indeed. I wounder if there is an Atlas of The Moon that shows maps with a particular phase with the correct orientation as seen through a refractor.

[Littleguy80]

This Atlas has been getting some love on here for containing Atlas views as seen through a refractor as well as section with Newtonian orientation. 
 

 

[Knighty2112]

Hi Martin. The atlas suggested by littleguy80 is good. If you have an ipad or android tablet there is an app that I use both on my iphone and ipad that is free and shows the phase of the moon, and you can flip the view to match what you see in your scope. Here’s an image of Hesiodus flipped to show the view through a ‘frac. You can also search for specific craters also. I am not aware of any hard copy maps that show phases as such.

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by Knighty2112

[mikeDnight]

1 hour ago, Grump Martian said:

I looked forward to this evenings event with the Suns light shining through the wall of Hesiodus crater. Thanks to the heads up post by Nyctimene.

I studied my Hamlyn Atlas of The Moon. But found that my understanding of the phases and how to locate craters through a refractor were poor indeed. I wounder if there is an Atlas of The Moon that shows maps with a particular phase with the correct orientation as seen through a refractor.

Sky & Telescope produce a laminated map of the Moon. You can choose from with south top as seen through a reflector, or a north top image reversed option. I use the latter Every time I observe the Moon and its excellent. However, if you want a truly excellent atlas that shows a refractor view, then the Duplex Moon Atlas is very impressive.

[Gfamily]

There's a new version (8) of Virtual Lunar Atlas released to mark its 20th Anniversary.  It doesn't show specific phase views (that would take at least 14 views per feature), but it's pretty clear. 

Not available as an App - but ... 

https://ap-i.net/avl/en/download

[Captain Scarlet]

I use an app called Moon Maps, which shows about 50 photographs at various mostly 0.5 day increments of phase. You can reverse and/or go south-up, and it’s annotated.

[mikeDnight]

16 hours ago, Grump Martian said:

I looked forward to this evenings event with the Suns light shining through the wall of Hesiodus crater. Thanks to the heads up post by Nyctimene.

I studied my Hamlyn Atlas of The Moon. But found that my understanding of the phases and how to locate craters through a refractor were poor indeed. I wounder if there is an Atlas of The Moon that shows maps with a particular phase with the correct orientation as seen through a refractor.

Sky & Telescope produce a laminated map of the Moon. You can choose from with south top as seen through a reflector, or a north top image reversed option. I use the latter Every time I observe the Moon and its excellent. However, if you want a truly excellent atlas that shows a refractor view, then the Duplex Moon Atlas is very impressive. The images below don't do justice to either the map or Atlas!

S&T laminated (north top, E/W reversed for diagonal users)

Duplex refractor/Mak, SCT, & Cassegrain maps,  and Newtonian reflector maps. One of the best, highly detailed atlases I've seen.

Edited March 31, 2023 by mikeDnight

[jjohnson3803]

I use a CI diagonal, so I prefer a correct/bino view, but I've found the Moon Chart app on my iPhone to be good and I recently installed Moon Maps, which I think will be really good scopeside.

As mentioned, the Virtual Atlas is good and I found a copy of "Atlas of the Lunar Terminator" which has extensive day-by-day views.  "ALT"  is out of print though and the clarity of the photos is not quite up to current standards.

I have a "S&T"  laminated map, but I haven't used it much.

[PeterW]

For helping match to what is there at this moment, with correct shadows etc, nasa dial a moon is very helpful.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5048
 

Peter

[step_hen]

Anyone got any recommendations for an app available on Android phones?

[DPF]

Hi all,

I use an erecting prism on my scope - does anyone have recommendations for a map of the moon, with the orientation right way up and right way round, as I’m not too great with orientation 😩

Thanks in advance

Edited March 24 by DPF

[bosun21]

Another 👍 for the Duplex Moon Atlas.

[jjohnson3803]

On 24/03/2024 at 08:29, DPF said:

Hi all,

I use an erecting prism on my scope - does anyone have recommendations for a map of the moon, with the orientation right way up and right way round, as I’m not too great with orientation 😩

Thanks in advance

If you want a map, I'd echo suggestions for the Sky & Telescope correct image (binocular view) map.

I like the Charles Wood atlas, but some people feel the errata list is too long.  It doesn't bother me, but YMMV.