LunarPhase Pro V2.23 Released

The V2.23 upgrade for LunarPhase Pro has been released. Please not that this upgrade is only available to exiting Version 2 users. Version 1 users can upgrade to Version 2 at the LunarPhase Pro Support page.

Thw V2.23 release contains a couple of bug fixes and some new (requested) features:

New: The Lunar Explorer screen can now show the Moon's orientation as seen in the sky (it's parallactic angle). Displaying the Moon this way requires that you tick the "Show Parallactic Angle" checkbox on the Configuration screen. [V2.21 only showed this orientation on the front screen].

New: A new map label type (called "Terminator") has been added to the Label Setup screen. If only this is ticked, then only labels for features along the terminator are displayed on the 3D maps on the Lunar Explorer screen. Display of these labels is not dependent on the Minimum Feature Diameter value (i.e. all terminator features as listed in the Terminator dropdown are displayed on the map). See the updated help file for more info. Thanks to Robert Warbrick for suggesting this.

New: A new option has been added to the Configuration screen which lets you specify if distances and feature sizes are displayed in kilometres or miles (It's at the bottom left of the second panel on the screen).

If you don't already own this software, you can read about its features and benefits at the LunarPhase Pro page.

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Download a Demo version of LunarPhase Pro V2.23 and see what it has to offer you!

The Planets on Friday Night (8th July)

On Friday evening, July 8th, step outside and look west toward the glow of the setting sun. You'll see Venus and, just above it, the slender crescent Moon. Now wait a bit, until the sky grows darker, and Mercury pops into view, too. It's a beautiful gathering. Visit Spaceweather.com for a sky map and more information.

Site Update News

The Night SKy Observer website is undergoing a revamp at the moment and some pages are in the new dark-text-on-white-background look (easier to read) while others are in the old bright-text-on-dark-background format. It'll take a few days to the the site fully converted.

A number of news pages have been added for the likes of the European Space Agency, NASA Watch, Deep Impact, etc and some of these are accessed by a new sub-menu on the navigation bar that appears on the revamped pages. A menu of the available news pages will be added to the top of each newspage over the next couple of days to make navigation easier.

Some astronomy podcasts have been added to the Audio/Video programs for the month list at the top of the Skynotes page.

More changes and additions to come!

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Deep Impact Mission A Success!

Well, the Deep Impact mission has been a resounding success. The impactor stuck its target right on time and ejected a bright plume of material. The first pictures have arrived back and there'll press conferences and news coverage during the day.

Chechk the Deep Impact page for the latest news updates.

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Comet, Revised Edition by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyen

Sunspots Galore

Only a few days ago the sun was completely blank, but now it is peppered with fast-growing sunspots. So far these active regions have produced no strong solar flares, but this could change if their dynamic growth continues. Visit spaceweather.com for movies of the growing 'spots and safe solar observing tips.

Deep Impact News Page Launched

I've put together a couple of pages with up-to-date news of the upcoming Deep Impact mission to fire a large mass into Comet Tempel 1 (and see what happens!). The impact will occur on July 4th. The pages also contain a number of resources related to the mission:

Deep Impact News

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