Moon
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Contents
Moon
A simple Moon phase viewer for the XO laptop including Lunar eclipse information and effect. Its usefulness as a shared activity will make more sense once the planned Sugar bulletin-board/chat overlay interface is implemented, where children will be able to point out features and places of interest to each other.
Screenshots
How to Install
Download this .xo file using the Browse activity: Moon.xo
Development
Moon is a standard Python activity that uses PyGTK for graphics and events. All Python is in an easily modifiable single file with a Sugar activity subclass that takes care of control and views, and a model class for Moon calculations. Code was ported from a Cocoa Mac application I wrote some time ago called MoonDock.
Release Notes
v3
Added view toolbar. Feature added to display selenographic longitude and latitude (to help learning the terms). Feature added to toggle Moon image display between Northern and Southern hemisphere viewing location (rotates view 180deg) Text displayed times comply with local daylight saving rules and time zones (all internal calculations are in UTC) More accurate selenographic terminator visualisation (shadow) for waning gibbous & waxing crescent (corrected estimate for 3d curvature)
v2
Minor update to display information using your local time zone, instead of UTC
v1
Beta version with basic core functionality (text information, Moon phase visualisation, Lunar eclipse data & effect).
Testing (Yes)
Moon v1 has been tested on build 690, 691, 693 and various joyride builds on a B4 laptop.
TODOs
- Mini-month Lunar calendar (stylised icons)
- Mouse over hover hints for major Lunar features
- Markers of interest feature for view toolbar, Lunar landings etc.
- Simplify/clean-up textual data and information
- Better target the demographic age
- Convert main view to Cairo to allow improved rendering (soft shadow)
- Translation work (string code is all marked up but not extracted for Pootle yet)
- Consider possible shared activity functionality
- Shared markers with text notes?
Feature requests
Add your feature requests here!
It would be good to have associated displays that explain some of the technical terms like, waxing, Julian, lunation, Selenographic, terminator, & longitude for the schoolchild or anyone wanting a lesson on Earth's moon. --FGrose 23:00, 19 February 2008 (EST)
