Viewing the Earth and Moon
Note: If these programs are to be used in real-time ... check your PC's clock
MST - clock
Viewing the Earth:
- as a day/night map of the Earth
- as seen from the Sun (ie Earth always appears as full Sun-lite globe)
- as seen from the Moon (ie Earth may appear as a cresent)
- as seen from the night side (ie the Sun on the opposite side of the Earth)
- above any location specified by latitude, longitude and altitude,
- from a satellite in Earth orbit,
- above various cities around the globe.
...OR...Images can be generated based on a full-colour image of the Earth by day and night, a topographical map of the Earth, up-to-date weather satellite imagery, or a IR composite image of cloud cover superimposed on a map of the Earth, or a colour composite which shows clouds, land and sea temperatures, and ice. Expert mode allows you additional control over the generation of the image. You can compose a custom request with frequently-used parameters and save it as a hotlist or bookmark item in your browser. Please consult the Details for additional information and answers to frequently-asked questions.
Viewing the Moon: (Yes ... you may even see the backside of the Moon!)
- as seen from the Earth
- as seen from the Sun
- as seen from the night side
- above named Lunar features on the lunar surface
- as a map showing day and night
A related document compares the appearance of the Moon at perigee and apogee, including an interactive Perigee and Apogee Calculator.
Also .. you can pan around the map or globe by clicking within the image.
Caution: Some browsers may not be able support all of features of this program
If you are interested in the details click ... here!
Credits
The Earth and Moon Viewer would have been enormously more difficult to implement without the help of the software and imagery mentioned in the credits.
Related Software:
I recommend that you download both the Earth and Moon Viewer and Sky Screen Saver programs for your Windows 95/NT PC. Together these programs can be used to display the current positions of the planets, constellations, stars ... as well as images which portray their appeareance ... all in real time ...
"Windows users can create images like this in real time, on their own machines, as well as view the sky, stars at the horizon, the solar system, orbits of asteroids and comets, and more with Home Planet, my public domain Earth/Space/Sky simulator available for your FTPing pleasure. Other public domain astronomy and space software available from the same site includes:
On the Web:
- Moon at Perigee and Apogee.
- Solar System Live: interactive orrery.
- Terranova: a new terraformed planet every day.
For Windows:
- Home Planet
- Earth screen saver
- Moontool
- Craters screen saver
- an Excel catalogue of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
For Unix (X/OpenWindows):
All of these packages and more can be located from my home page.- John Walker
Back to: Tom's Astronomy Web
