Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/

I selected the Digital Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon. It is based on the book Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Moon by Bowker and Hughes, the “definitive reference manual to the global photographic coverage of the Moon”. It is an excellent resource for studying lunar morphology. It was published in 1971 and uses photographs taken by Lunar Orbiters 4 and 5.

Selection Decisions
Everything in the original book was reproduced, not only the photographs but also the text, charts, and illustrations, both as standard web pages and pdfs. It reproduces the 675 photographic plates contained within the original book. This allows the digital collection continue to serve as a resource, as the 1971 book is very rare and hard to find. They also updated the surface feature information, and included new annotated overlays, to facilitate easier feature identification.

Metadata
All photographs list the number of the photograph, names of the features visible on them, the longitude and latitude, and the feature size in km. It also lists the angle of the sun in the photo, the altitude of the spacecraft, and Medium Res. Photo Center Coordinates. The information from the book details even more specific data about when and where the spacecraft was when it took pictures of selected plates and frames, down to the hundredth of a second. Tying that information to specific photos is not straightforward, however.

Object Characteristics
Searching can be done by Feature Name, Photo Number, Coordinate Range, List of Features by Descending N Latitude, List of Features by Descending S Latitude, List of Features by Descending E Longitude, and List of Features by Descending W Longitude. After searching, the photo number is the link to the desired page. The page contains three thumbnails and the information about the features in the photo. Clicking on the thumbnail of either the original photo or annotated photo will bring up a image sized somewhere around 900x1000 pixels depending on the photo. File names are the same as the photo number. The third thumbnail brings up a diagram showing where on the moon globe the picture was taken.

Intended Audience
The audience is Lunar enthusiasts and students with an interest in lunar geography. It is not made clear whether or not the DVD version of the digital atlas has higher resolution images, so I can’t say if the online version is equally good for research as the DVD or not. I suspect that the only advantage of the DVD and version is access without the internet. Regardless, the atlas is not for the general public, it’s a highly scientific resource.