Date:      Sat, 01 Jun 2013 07:38:40 -0500
To:         skyking42@gmx.com.com
From:    Bob Garfinkle
Subject: LAC maps on the USGS Flagstaff website

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) released on March 18, 2013 a new set of 144 electronic LAC maps on the USGS Flagstaff website at: http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/. Click on "Nomenclature", then "The Moon." A sample map will appear along with a list of features. Below the map is "Moon Images With Names" link and below that is the "1:1 million-scale maps of the Moon" link. Click on that and you will get an index of the maps. If you are looking for a specific feature, click on the type of feature, then in the box for a feature name, type in the feature's name and the next page will show you data on the feature and on what LAC map the feature appears.

The new set is made with the LRO Wide Angle Camera (WAC) replace the Lunar Orbiter versions. The new maps have sharper detail than the LO maps. For most features the name is in yellow with a yellow dot indicating the center of the feature for many of the features. Like the LO version, you can download the map and save them as PDF. Also, like the LO versions the new maps are based on the paper quadrangle maps of the 60s-80s. Unlike the paper editions, the electronic maps cover the entire lunar globe, and in stunning detail.

All of the maps are FREE to download. While on the USGS site, explore and see what else that they have on the site that might interest you.

Last June, they updated all of the feature coordinates and diameters, so be sure to use that info if you are giving coordinates and dimensions. You can download the data sets by feature type. Some files are small, but the satellite features info is a BIG file covering 7,103 named features. I spent over a month updating thousands of coordinates for my in-procees major lunar observers' handbook, to be published by Springer. The typeset manuscript is closing in on 1,500 pages.

Thanks go to all of the USGS staff, and especially Jenny Blue for creating the new maps and putting them on line.

Enjoy.

Bob Garfinkle, FRAS
Union City, California USA