You will see that all the features named Gassendi, such as satellite craters appear in the results and are marked with orange circles on the lunar image. For example, when searching for Gassendi, select the Nomenclature layer from the overlays sub-menu, you will notice that a green box will appear to the left of its name, showing that the layer is active, and the green ‘i’ to the right which has opened up the menu containing the opacity slider, key and search field below. Your results list pops up below, and by clicking your feature name the view will change to your target. In the search field type in your feature name and press enter (it is case insensitive, but will not forgive spelling mistakes). To find a particular feature, however, click on the ‘i’ icon and a drop-down box appears containing the opacity slider, a key to all those coloured dots, and a search field. A single click on each dot brings up a box with the feature details from the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. If you simply click on Nomenclature (box to the left turns green when active) your lunar image becomes plastered with coloured dots marking the various surface features, all colour coded, and with the name attached visible when you zoom in. Firstly click on Overlays in the Layers menu from the list that drops down go to Nomenclature. So, to search for a particular named feature you would proceed as follows. Clicking the ‘i’ (yes – it turns green when selected) opens yet another drop-down box which contains information, a sliding bar that allows you to alter the opacity of that item and in some cases a search function. Each item on the list has a white box to the left, that turns green when you click in it activating that particular item, and an ‘i’ to the right. For example clicking on Overlays opens up a list running from Anthropogenic Features to Nomenclature. Clicking each one of these layers opens up a sub-menu which contains various items. Clicking on this opens up a sub-menu with a number of individual layers starting with Overlays and ending at the bottom with LROC WAC Basemaps. Searching for Gassendi via the Nomenclature layer in the Overlays sub-menu Figure 4 shows the next item on the menu bar, which is the ‘Layers’ icon of three horizontal bars. To get back to the normal 3D globe view use the house icon below the ‘Fly around selected point’ one.įigure 4. The simulation can be a bit ‘jerky’ but is perfectly usable. Once the icon is blue to show it is active, just click on the spot on the lunar globe you want to fly around, and a rather nice 3D simulation pops up flying around your chosen spot. You do this by selecting the ‘Fly around selected point’ icon shown in Figure 3, which appears when you select the Lunar Globe 3D function. The star feature, however, of this 3D view is the ability to select a point and virtually fly around it. You can still zoom in and out and use various functions and overlays available in the Layers menu (described below), but the feature names are no longer available. The advantage of this function is that you can view any part of the surface even at high latitude without the distortion of perspective and from a simulated vertical position. The fancy new function to try in the Projections sub-menu is the Lunar Globe 3D (last item on the sub-menu) which produces a 3D globe which you can twirl around using the mouse. The Projections sub-menuWhen you click an icon on this new menu bar, the icon selected turns blue and the sub-menu pops out to the right. The default projection as shown in Figure 1 is Orthographic (Nearside), but you can change this by clicking on the globe icon at the very top of the menu bar to open up the ‘Projections’ layer, as seen in Figure 2. In the bottom left corner to the right of the ? symbol, you will see the lat/long data, and finally the scale bar is in bottom right. The zoom control can be found at the top right hand corner. The slim menu bar on the left-hand side has changed in appearance, with a number of icons that expand by selecting them. As seen in Figure 1.įigure 1.The Quickmap home page in its default setting. The lunar image you see on the screen remains unchanged, and if you just want to explore the surface using a mouse without plunging into the menus you still can.īy selecting, you will be directed to the Quickmap home page. The major changes apply to the menus and the data and layers available. Given the British climate and the few opportunities we have to view the Moon telescopically, you will all be delighted to know that the Quickmap site has been updated with a number of new additional functions. 2018 January 3 QUICKMAP – Latest Version Now Live
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