Show HN: The ASCII Side of the Moon

Summary

The ASCII Side of the Moon Moon Phase TerminalDate and Location Controls Look up at the sky, then to your screen, now back up to the sky, now down again. Chances are when looking up you did not see the Moon, but there was a Moon on your screen. Presented for your consideration is a rendering of the Moon in glorious 7-bit ASCII. Drag the slider with the Moon icon, and you will notice the Moon changes over time. As the Moon orbits around the Earth in a monthly cycle, the visible portion of the Moon change as part of the Moon hides in its own shadow. This is called the Lunar phase. The illuminated percentage and side are accurately calculated and displayed. The orbit itself is not circular and the Lunar distance to the Earth is not constant. Variation in distance causes the apparent size of the Moon to change, up to 12% smaller at apogee than perigee. This is also accurately calculated and displayed. Additionally, the Moon wobbles slightly up and down and side to side in its orbit. This is called Lunar libration. The libration angle is also accurately calculated and is visible in the ASCII art. Depending on observer’s position on the Earth and time of day, the Moon’s apparent angular orientation changes. Click or drag on the world map to set your location and see the Moon as it appears from your position, including whether it is above or below the horizon. Lastly, the Moon is often viewed with up towards Polaris, the Celestial Reference Frame, rather than the Zenith. You can get this view by clicking on the location bead on the world map and toggling between the observer, celestial up, and celestial down reference frames. The celestial reference frames are particularly useful for seeing the lunar wobble and distance changes over time. Now that we got that astronomy out of the way, let’s get the ASCII in to your terminal. You have 2 choices. First, you can fetch the ASCII from the webserver at the present url. A curl command is helpfully provided in the virtual terminal...