A very
nifty little
dockapp for
WindowMaker which can also run as a
standalone
application under any
XWindows window manager. Basically
you start it giving your current position on
earth in
longitude
and
latitude, and if running WindowMaker slide it on to the
dock.
From then on it will show you a cool little 64x64 graphic of the moon,
in as much detail as you can squeeze into those few pixels (quite a lot
in fact), exactly as it would appear to you right here, right now. Click
once. You'll get a display showing the moon's current age (in days since
the last new moon), the geometric (how far through its complete
lunar cycle the moon is), the illum (percentage of the moon's face
that is currently illuminated) and whether or not the moon is currently
visible for you.
Click again and you get rise/set times for the moon for today,
yesterday and tomorrow (all in local time). A further click will
display the moon's horizon coordinates (altitude/azimuth system),
and how far the moon currently is from the earth's surface. With this
information you can point and telescope directly at the moon and get it
perfectly focused without even taking off the lens cap -- assuming you
know what you're doing of course. One further click will display the moon's
ecliptic coordinates, for astronomers who prefer to use those.
An essential little application for amateur astronomers,
werewolves, burglars and anyone else who needs to know how
bright the moon is.