FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

You have complete control over the color and size and position of the feature labels.
You may overlay text labels of any or all of the following lunar features:

• Craters and Sub-craters
• Mare (seas)
• Landing sites
• Catena (crater chains)
• Rima (rilles)
• Lacus (lakes)
• Mons (mountains)
• Dorsum (wrinkle ridges)
• Promontor
• Vallis (valleys)
• As well as Other features (Apollo landings, for example)
  

Very big- if printed full size at screen reslution, they would be 30 inches (some almost a yard) across! Compare that to a book that is 11 inches- we have 3 times the detail!

It is better for many reasons. Here are just a few of them:

• You control the labeling. Too few, too many, wrong spot? Not here- its in your control!
  
• You can get instant identification by clicking on the feature (even without labels on)!
• We have 250,000 words on the Moon, you are certain to learn more interesting information with this software.
• Lunar Discoverer can show the Moon in any orientation- mirrored image, upside down, inside out. A book can't do that.
  Depending on your telescope, you might have to turn an atlas upside down, or try to flip right and left sides in your head - which is very difficult, confusing, and frustrating. We spare you all that.
• We have large photographic views of the entire Moon (some atlas use sketched images, and most are under 10 inches to ft on a book page).
  
• Searchable database. No flipping between pages to find features. Type the name and find the object instantly.
  
• We have thousands of closeup photographic images of features.
• You get eyepiece views, with full magnification control, to match how the Moon appears in your equipment. This is tremendously important and helpful in locating where you are gazing among thousands of craters.
• Best of all, Lunar Discoverer actually costs less than many paper atlases!

Yes, it can be used to give the view of the Moon through ANY telescope or binocular!
With or without inverters and diagonals. It handles every case easily and flawlessly.

Yes, we can show the view oriented exactly as it appears in your eyepiece.

Yes. And East on the Right side or left, depending on how it appears in your equipment. All images are automatically switched - even the hi-resolution  closeups, so you never have to wrack your brain trying to reverse images in your brain!

No problem, mate! Absolutely.

You can zoom in and out, enter your telescope optical values and see the same field of view on the screen that your eyepiece shows- very helpful in the very busy areas of the Moon where you can get 'lost' in the crater fields!

No, not in this version, but it may in the near future.

Our goal was to focus on being educational and non-intimidating. The text is appropriate for middle school aged students. There is an  online Guide and Glossary that explains the many terms used in lunar observing. There is also a guide on the basics of telescopes.

As you sit at home with Lunar Discoverer, you'll find yourself becoming more knowledgeable and more comfortable at star parties.

Yes. You can make up a custom list of any kind of lunar object, save them in a text file, and use the Open List to just display those items. You can even mix and match any type, for example, only the Apollo spacecraft, instead of all lunar landers. This can be useful to limit label clutter in areas where many feaures are close to one another. See the manual for more details.