Moon Mappers: Simply Craters Tutorial
The Simply Craters interface and task really is what it sounds like: We simply have you identify craters.
Different Parts of the Interface
The above image is what you will be presented with during the main tasks for Simply Craters. The numbers below refer to the numbers in the image.
1. This is a 450 by 450 pixel image taken of the lunar surface. It is what we want you to map out for us.
2. The main toolbar that lets you mark the image. See below for more information.
3. Tool tips show you exactly what you selected in (2) does. In the screen capture above, the Mark Craters tool has been selected and the Tool Tip gives you detailed information on how to use it.
4. Examples of what craters look like (these are what we want you to mark!).
5. Some statistics of interest. This screen capture was taken early in beta testing and so few features have been found, but stats will show here letting you know of the project's progress. If you click on "Twitter feed" instead of "My MoonMapper," you'll be shown the latest tweets from selected astronomy-related Twitter feeds.
The Toolbar
The image is the most important part of the interface, but you can't do anything with it unless you have tools. That's what the main toolbar's purpose is.
1. This allows you to select and to then modify any feature that you have created. You can move features, re-size them, or select them for deletion (4).
2. This is probably the tool you'll use the most because it lets you mark craters. When this screen grab was taken, that was the tool that was selected, indicated by the light background. To use the Mark Craters tool, select it, and then draw on the image. Start at the center of a crater you want to mark, hold the mouse button down, and drag until you reach the edge of the crater. If the crater is smaller than our minimum size, the crater you draw will remain red and will disappear when you release the mouse button. If it's big enough to be counted, it will turn green.
3. Mark Feature lets you put down a flag on the image in the location of a feature that you think is particularly interesting (see below, "Features to Mark").
4. "Delete Marking" does what it sounds like -- if you have this tool selected, move your mouse over the feature you have marked, click, and you will erase it.
5. The View Mode helps to more clearly see an image if you have marked a lot of features. The default is "Hybrid" which shows both the image and the features you have marked. "Image" will make your markings go invisible so you can see the underlying image again. This is useful if you think there may be a feature under something you've already marked. "Markings" turns off the image and only shows what you have marked.
6. These are extra options that we ask you to choose before clicking the "Done Working" button for that image. Linear Features means that there is some sort of linear feature in the image, some feature on the moon that forms a line. Odd Features should be checked if you see something weird and you don't know what it is, or if you want to call attention to it beyond marking it. Nothing Interesting would be for if there are just normal, boring craters in the image with no special types nor anything else interesting. Check the "Bad Image" box if the image is grainy, black, distorted, or has some other problem with it. That way we can remove it.
7. Once you're done marking everything in the image, click this button to save your work and move on to the next one!
Features to Mark
A guide to all the features you can mark is available here.
A full lunar glossary is coming soon!
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|---|---|---|
| The Science | The Mission | The Team |
| Tutorials | FAQ | Publications |
| Science Tasks | Simply Craters | |
| Man vs Machine | ||