> What advantages does Guide / Lunar Map Pro / Virtual Moon Atlas give you
> over the various paper maps / atlases ?
>
> Richard.

Richard,

It's an interesting question. I love books and maps (and maps in books) and
still use them, but I've gotten interested in astronomy software since getting
back into the hobby a little less than a year ago.

Software does offer extreme convenience of access: that is, I can search for a
particular deepsky object and am taken to it immediately. With a paper atlas you
have to look up, turn pages, find, etc.

That may sound wimpy a la, "oh poor Glenn, like turning pages is so hard," but
it is deeper than that. Software offers immediate linking to depths of
information that is simply not achievable with a book: the sort of default
example is the hyperlink - where a book might have a footnote citing another
book, a webpage (or, for that matter, Guide) links one piece of information to
another and you can immediately traverse that link.

And then there's the little matter of breezy observing sessions and paper
atlas pages turning on you, etc. :)

I'm never gonna sell my Herald-Bobroff Astroatlas. I like it too much.

Glenn Becker

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