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Virtual Planet and Virtual Moon Atlases

Discussion in 'Observing Celestial Objects' started by Ed D, Nov 27, 2022.

Virtual Planet and Virtual Moon Atlases

Started by Ed D on Nov 27, 2022 at 9:31 AM

6 Replies 864 Views 2 Likes

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  1. Ed D

    Ed D Well-Known Member

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    Adding to the wealth of planetary information being posted recently, I thought I would share info about a couple of programs I have been using for a few years.

    The first is Virtual Planet Atlas. I'm still using Version 1, but there is a new Version 2 with many great features added, which I'm going to download shortly. Here is the link:

    http://www.ap-i.net/avp/en/start

    Version 1 has been very useful to me for determining when Jove's GRS is in view, what Martian features are visible and when, etc. Plus, it has great information about the features you are looking at. I hope V2 is as easy to use as the first.

    The second is Virtual Moon Atlas:

    https://ap-i.net/avl/en/download

    The one I have is v3.5c Lite, but the most current is v7.0. Like the planetary atlas, this one shows the moon, the illumination, etc, plus you can click on lunar features and display information about that feature.

    Wow, I didn't realize my versions were so outdated. I'll be downloading this one, too.

    Ed D
     
    Orion25 and Nebula like this.
  2. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Thansk for the info Ed-D I will try Virtual planet again. Previously it would not work with Linux but that was with my previous computer, with older revisions of everything.

    I am trying it now to see if it's working.
     
  3. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the links, Ed. I'm downloading Virtual Planet Atlas!
     
  4. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    I could never get either to run on Ubuntu. I miss VMA. I hope you convince it to run on Linux.
     
  5. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Merci beaucoup, Ed!
    It works well on Windows 10 on my laptop and even on my old computer running Windows XP. This is what I've been looking for, especially for Mars. Cal-Tech had a nice free Mars simulator during the 2018 opposition, but had to shut it down soon thereafter due to lack of funding.
     
  6. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    @Mak the Night It's not working on Mint either. Maybe by spending a lot of time working on the problem, with the help of people in a forum.

    I think I tried to run it in a virtual machine in the past but that also, didn't work because of a 3D acceleration problem, if I remember correctly.

    In fact, I think it worked at some point in Linux but the planets had no textures on.

    We will see.
     
  7. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Celestia seems to have the same textures problem.
     

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