Reprint from:

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The Digital Lens
Newsletter of the A.L.P.O. Computing Section
No. 6  Nov. 1997  Mike W. McClure, editor
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Moonrise V 3.2 Review

Moonrise V3.2 is a shareware program written by Dr. Bruce Sidell that excels
in calculating and displaying the times of moonrise/moonset and sunrise/sunset.

To get a free 30 day evaluation copy of Moonrise go to the Moonrise Homepage
at http://www.iserv.net/~bsidell/moonrise.htm. The program is downloaded as
a self extracting zip file (526 KB). Clicking on the zip file launches a
setup routine that installs Moonrise to the location specified by the user.

Moonrise is written in Visual Basic and runs on Windows 95 and Win NT (3.51
or later) machines. The program requires the Visual Basic (VB40032.dll)
runtime library. The runtime dll should be located in the Windows\System
directory for Win 95 systems or in the Windows directory on computers
running NT. If VB40032.dll is not on the users system, a copy can be freely
downloaded from the Moonrise Homepage.

Configuring Moonrise involves selecting time formats, setting location
coordinates, setting display options, and customizing the user interface.

---Time Format

Select TIME on the menu bar to display the TIME selection menu. Times for
moonrise/moonset can be displayed in several formats including Standard
Time, Daylight Time, and UT. The selected time may be viewed in 12 or 24
hour mode. Also, the option of including twilight times is available from
this menu screen. Astronomical twilight occurs when the sun is 18 degrees
below the horizon. Nautical twilight occurs when the sun has dipped 12
degrees below the horizon. Civil twilight occurs when the sun is only 6
degrees below the horizon and scattered light is still significant.

---Location

To configure Moonrise to a users geographical location, select Options from
the menu bar and click Location or press Ctrl-L. The interface allows users
to select a location from an extensive list of cities, or the user may add a
city and provide longitude, latitude, and time zone data for the selected
location.

---Other Display Options

Additional customization is available from the Options menu. Moon phases
may be checked on or off. When checked, the dates and times of New Moon,
First Quarter, Full Moon, and Last Quarter for the current month are displayed.

Moon transit times are another option that users can select by checking
Moon Transit on the context menu or pressing Ctrl-R.

Illumination/Azimuth is another feature that users can toggle between to
display percent illumination for moonrise, transit, and moonset times, or
show azimuth in degrees for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset.

---Customizing the User Interface

A color option on the Options menu allows the user to select background,
text, and moonphase colors from a 56 color palette.

After configuring Moonrise, the program is ready to use. The Moonrise
Window features controls familiar to any Windows user. Just below the menu
bar is where the calculated times for moonrise and moonset are displayed.
For 10/26/97 Moonrise displayed the following results:

A moon icon showing the correct percent illumination for the current phase
is prominently displayed on the Windows interface.

The Moonrise interface also includes a handy calendar that allows users to
calculate moonrise/moonset times for any date.

In addition to viewing the day's moonrise and moonset times, Moonrise
includes a list option that allows users to view monthly data. A table
showing twilight, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, transit times, and
percent illumination for each day of the month can be printed, or copied to
the clipboard for inclusion into other programs.

The author found Moonrise V 3.2 to be accurate, easy to use, and a useful
tool for planning daily or long range observing programs.

The cost of registering Moonrise is $25 U.S. More information about the
program can be found on the Moonrise Homepage.

Return to Moonrise home page