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Moon Info! Documentation

Moon Info! Icon

Moon Info! computes age, phase, percent illumination, distance and angular diameter of the Moon, distance to the Sun and angular diameter of the Sun, and the times and dates of quarter phases of the Moon.

Moon Info! is based in part on Moontool for Windows by John Walker. A similarly formated display on the Palm is utilized for those of you who use both Moontool and Moon Info!

Moon Info! is for Palm OS 2 or higher devices only.

Photo by M. Edward Wilborne III

Features

The primary screen of Moon Info! shows:

  • Julian Date
  • UTC Date & Time
  • Local Date & Time
  • Classical Moon Phase description
  • Age of the Moon in days, hours and minutes
  • Phase of the Moon, percentage of illumination
  • Distance to the Moon in user selectable units of Kilometers, Miles, Nautical Miles, or Earth Radii
  • Graphical representation of illuminated phase
  • Angular diameter in degrees of the Moon at the displayed date and time
  • Rise and Set times of the moon on the selected date (also available in Sol! II)
  • Rise and Set times of the Sun (registered version only if the optional SunCore! plug-in is installed)
  • Astronomical Twilight times of the Sun (registered version only if the optional SunCore! plug-in is installed)
  • Distance to the Sun in user selectable units of Kilometers, Miles, Nautical Miles, or Astronomical Units
  • Angular diameter in degress of the Sun at the displayed date and time
  • The currently selected location

Several "Active Labels" are available on the screen depending on what is installed.

  • Date allows you to select a new date (registered version only).
  • N set the date and time to now
  • Sun can be tapped to run Sol! II a sun rise, set, moon rise, set and twilights calculator (registered version only).
  • Graphical Clock for selecting the multiday Moon Rise and Set screen (registered version only).
  • Graphical Calendar for running Alex Garza's Moon Calendar application if it's installed (registered version only).
  • Moon can be tapped to bring up the Quarters screen described below.
  • Diamond in the lower left corner of the display is a quick launch button for Star Pilot (registered version only).

Note: All features except SunCore! that are listed as registered only are still available in the shareware version by use of the application's menu.

Moon Info! Screen

Several values are computed and displayed on this screen:

  • Last Lunation (also known as a synodic month).
  • Date & Time of
    • Last New Moon
    • First Quarter Moon
    • Full Moon
    • Last Quarter Moon
    • Next New Moon
  • Next Lunation

The dates and times presented on this screen are show in UTC by default. Uncheck the Times in UTC check box to display the times as local time with adjustments for Daylight Savings Time.

Quarters Screen

The Moon Rise & Set screen shows Moon rise and set times for 3 dates centered around the currently selected Local Time date on the main screen.

Rise & Set compass locations (azimuth) is also displayed for each time.

The dates and times displayed on this screen are Local Time and DST compensated if selected in Location Manager.

This information screen is also available in Sol! II

Moon Rise & Set

Operation

[ Installation ] [ Startup ] [ Active Labels ]
Installation

Moon Info! requires several PRC files to be installed:

  • Moon Info! (minf_sw.prc) shareware version of Moon Info! (Registered users will download and install mooninfo.prc)
  • MathLib.prc by Rick Huebner

    MathLib is a free shared library that can be used by any OS 2.0 Pilot program that needs IEEE 754 double precision math functions. It's distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, and is freely available with full source code and documentation at the MathLib Information web page at http://www.radiks.net/~rhuebner/mathlib.html. You're not paying anything for its use; a copy is simply included in this archive for your convenience.

  • llmgr.prc Location Manager Library by Star Pilot
  • location.prc Location Manager by Star Pilot

Startup

When the program starts up, it calculates all of the Moon information displayed for the default location selected with Star Pilot's Location Manager and the current date and time as set on the Palm.

Active Labels

Several "Active Labels" or buttons may be displayed on the Moon Info! screen depending on the configuration of your Palm.

Date can be used to select a new date (registered version only).

N Sets the time and date to now and recalculates all the displayable data.

Moon displays the Quarters information screen.

Graphical Clock displays the Moon Rise & Set information screen (registered version only).

Graphical Calendar for running Alex Garza's Moon Calendar application if it's installed (registered version only).

Sun launches the Sol! II application by MEW3 Software Development if the program is installed (registered version only).

A Diamond will be displayed in the lower left hand corner if Star Pilot is installed (registered version only).

Hardware Buttons

Advance the date and time by using the hardware up and down buttons on your Palm.

The amount of time that the buttons adjust the displayed date and time is determined using the Time Increment menu option described below.

Menu Options

There are several options on the View Menu:

  • Previous adjusts the date and time backwards by the Time Increment described below.
  • Next adjusts the date and time forward by the Time Increment described below.
  • Quarters displays the next quarters similar to pressing the active label Moon as described above.
  • Rise & Set displays the Moon Rise & Set screen which shows applicable rise and set times of the moon for the day before the selected date, the selected date, and the day after the selected date. Rise & Set Compass Azimuth positions are also displayed.
View Menu
  • Select Date allows you to change the active date for the Moon calculations.
  • Time Increment allows you to adjust how much time is adjusted by the up and down hardware buttons, or the View-Previous and View-Next menu options, using a pop up selector:
    Select Increment
Options Menu

FlashPro Compatibility

The application and it's libraries can be put in Flash memory on the Palm III and higher models that have free flash ram.

You can place these files into flash: MathLib, MEW3 Lib, SunCore!, and Moon Info!

Possible Future Enhancements

  • Next Rise or Set for the Moon on the primary screen if the current date and time is after the selected days Rise and/or Set.
  • User defineable preferences, such as AM/PM or Military Time display.
  • Local Mean Sidereal Time.

References

Release History

  • 2004 March 7 Version 2.2.0
    • Menu option and quick launch button for launching Saturn! added.
  • 2003 June 24 Version 2.1.3
    • A bug with DST was fixed in the registered version when using the optional suncore.prc add-in for computing sun rise and sun set times. For some locations the riset and set times were off by an hour.
    • A Help Menu option for showing the location of the on-line help was added.
  • 2003 June 9 Version 2.1.2
  • 2003 May 18 Version 2.1.1
    • Menu options for About, Registration and Support updated.
  • 2003 April 9 Version 2.1.0
    • Dates are now displayed using the user defined preference for dates.
    • Moon Info! is now Palm OS 5 compliant!
  • 2001 January 1 Version 2.0.0
    • The shared libraries MEW3 Lib and Astro Lib 1 are no longer required.
  • 2000 May 29 Version 1.6.2
    • Contact information updated. No new features added.
  • 2000 April 18 Version 1.6.1
    • Fixed problems with icon resources that would cause Palm OS 3.x devices to crash.
  • 2000 April 13 Version 1.6.0
    • Color icon and small icon added for Palm OS 3.x devices
  • 3 January 2000
    • Version 1.51
    • A DST error in the non UTC version of the Quarters screen has been corrected. The would be evident in locations that don't have DST.
  • 2 January 2000
    • Version 1.5
    • The Quarters screen now supports display of times in Local Time and UTC.
  • 12 October 1999
    • Version 1.4
    • If MEW3_lib.prc is not installed, running Moon Info! will not cause a fatal reset.
    • Adjusted some lettering on the main screen to be more consistent.
    • Added a user preferences screen that will allow you to adjust settings of Moon Info!
      • Set the default distance units for both the Sun and Moon.
      • You can turn off Moon Rise/Set calculation to speed up the program.
      • Optionally calculate Astronomical Twilight start/end instead of Sun Rise/Set.
    • Changed the Time Increment Screen to use the push button interface instead of check boxes.
  • 1 October 1999
    • Version 1.3
    • Fixed a font problem for Palm Vx users.
    • Sun Rise and Set are now available in the registered version of Moon Info! if the optional SunCore! plug-in is installed.
  • 14 September 1999
    • Version 1.2
    • Location Manager v1.5 is now required to use Moon Info!
  • 25 August 1999
    • Version 1.1
    • Doubled the number of images used to represent the Moon Phase
    • Corrected a couple of misspellings of "Waning"
  • 21 August 1999
    • Version 1.0 - Initial Release


Page updated: 2004 March 18 Copyright © 1997-2004 MEW3.com