Lunar Frame ScouterExtension for Google MapsChrome · FirefoxScan the place.
Plan the frame.
Draws Moon and Sun trajectories directly in Google Street View and Google Maps.
- Scouter
- Two overlays in Google Maps and Street View. A quick check of the spot.
- Lunar Frame
- Full frame planning. One click away from Scouter.
Pick the store for your browser.
The map does not know what stands in the way
The map will show that the tower is 3.2 km to the east. It will not show the fence standing between you and it, nor the forest that has grown for ten years, nor the embankment that eats the first three degrees above the horizon.
That is visible only in a photograph taken from ground level, which is why the question „can the target be seen from here at all” is settled on the panorama, at your desk.
On the panorama
- Arc
- The Moon's trajectory for the chosen night, with a dot every hour.
- Disc
- Angular diameter at true scale - 0.52° in a frame with a 78° field of view, together with the phase shape.
- Horizon
- Rise and set markers where the trajectory crosses the horizon line.
- Target
- A vertical line for the target azimuth, and an arrow at the edge when the target falls outside the frame.
- Sun
- Optionally the same for the Sun, on the same panorama.
On the map
- Rays
- Rise, set and chosen-hour azimuths as 30 km great circles - you can see what they pass through.
- Sky disc
- A diagram of the whole night above the chosen point.
- Points
- Observer and target as two separate, movable markers.
Do not ask where the Moon will be. Moon.
Ask where you have to stand.
Normally you ask where the Moon will be while standing at a given point. When planning a frame the question is reversed: you want the Moon to end up exactly behind the tower.
So the observer-to-tower direction has to equal the Moon's azimuth. The tower is known; the unknown is the place - it lies on the line leaving the tower at the opposite azimuth.
Stand anywhere on that ray and at 18:00 the disc will be exactly behind the target. Closer - the tower grows in the frame; further - it shrinks against the disc. The rest is composition.
- Target
- Television tower, 3.2 km from the starting point
- Hour
- 18:00, Alt. 2,0°
- Ray
- 249,1°
- Phase
- 0,98 near full
Scouter ↔ Lunar Frame
Planning works both ways.
Scouter settles whether the spot is worth it at all - the rest of the frame happens in the app, one click away.
To the app
Observer, target and hour move to Lunar Frame with a single click.
In the app
Focal length, body altitude, field-of-view simulation - full frame planning.
Back to the panorama
You drive along the panorama a little further so the fence stops blocking the view, and send the corrected spot back.
What the extension sees
- Scope
- Only google.com/maps and google.pl/maps plus Street View panoramas. Addresses of other sites are not read.
- Computation
- Ephemerides are computed locally in the browser - coordinates are never sent anywhere for computation.
- Accounts
- No sign-in. The handoff to the app goes through a link you trigger yourself.
- Analytics
- None. Zero trackers and zero external requests beyond Google Maps.
- This page
- Self-hosted Matomo, no cookies, no profiling. The extension itself sends nothing.
Do I need a Lunar Frame account?
No. Scouter works on its own; the handoff to the app is optional.
Does it draw a terrain silhouette from an elevation model?
No. The terrain is in the photograph; our own model would mix two sources of truth.
Planets, radiants, an azimuth-altitude grid?
No. Moon and Sun only.
Will it work on a phone?
No. A desktop browser is required: Chrome 111+ or Firefox 128+.