I am so pleased to announce the availability of The Lunartic! This is a passion project that I have been working on literally for decades. My favorite astronomical object to observe is the Moon, and I want to be an even better and more informed lunar observer, so part of my motivation of this project was for myself, to become a better and more educated lunar observer… a bit of a fanatic if you will… oh let’s just say a LUNARTIC about observing the Moon. My hope is that it is a tool that will help you too friend, learn more about our beautiful Moon and nearest celestial neighbor. No light pollution filters needed, no dark skies, no cameras or long exposures of fancy smart scopes. Just look at it naked eye, with binoculars, or just a telescope with an eyepiece. Mine and the Lunartic’s journey has just begun and I have a roadmap that will take years to realize in full.
The first incarnation, version 1 is now available for iOS and will run on most modern iPhones and iPads, back to iOS version 17.6. The Lunartic has the most realistic simulation of the Moon on the market today, with an accurate simulation of how the Moon looks for any date (well, contemporary dates!) down to the shadows cast by mountains and surrounding terrain. If you were a fan of the old “Lunar Visualization Toolkit”, I’ve brought that level of realism up a few notches with modern GPU technology and it will run on your cell phone or tablet! Yes… a desktop version is in the works boys and girls… stay tuned. More information about The Lunartic can be found on my business website, and I’ve posted a YouTube video with me introducing the basics of how to use it. I’ll post some more videos with deep dives in coming weeks and months as I roll out more features and we move along.
Are you a Lunartic too? Come join the fun!