Ann: A personal lunar observer planning spreadsheet in Excel

http://members.csolutions.net/fisher...dtProject.html

This project is announce an observation planning spreadsheet
implemented in Microsoft Excel (2003) suitable for beginner or
intermediate lunar observers. The spreadsheet contains a catalogue of
approximately 2,600 lunar objects which can be sorted and filtered by
the current position of the lunar terminator. Utilities are provided to
predict on what dates and times a particular terminator position will
occur in the 12 months following the current date and time. It is
designed to quickly answer the question "What's on the terminator
tonight?" The spreadsheet is not internationalized and assumes a
Microsoft Windows U.S. date system.

While this spreadsheet contains a good utility for locating favorable
observing times for objects near the terminator on the Moon's near-side
face between 0 and 90 degrees East or West lunar longitude, this
spreadsheet is not suitable for high-precision planning for observing
objects in libration areas on the lunar limb.

This lunar observing spreadsheet will be of interest to instructors of
introductory college astronomy courses, astronomy club lunar party
organizers, and intermediate and beginner lunar observers. By using the
full power of Excel's drill-down data filter feature, a variety of
interesting lunar tours can be developed, e.g. - by geologic period, by
crater size, by feature type, by bright ray crater, by dark halo
crater, by dark-floor craters, by fractured floor craters, etc.

Other features included in this lunar observing spreadsheet are a means
to quickly move target lists to HTML tables for redistribution over the
web. An article index and bibliography is included.

A better existing alternative is the popular freeware Virtual Atlas of
the Moon (VAM) by Patrick Chevalley and Christian Legrand.

The project homepage and spreadsheet download site, which contains a
detailed description of the catalogue's development, is listed above.

Enjoy

- Canopus56