Planetary Visibility

PLSV (Planetary, Lunar and Solar Visibility) is an astronomy app for sophisticated star enthusiasts and hobby astronomers who value well-founded and precise astronomical illustrations and data.

It presents a 3-color diagram that shows when a planet, the moon or the sun is visible during any year from 1900 to 2100 at any location on the earth. The vertical axis marks the months of the year, the horizontal axis marks the hours of the day. The three colors create a contour map effect and show whether the body is under the horizon (black) and invisible, above the horizon with the sun (light color) and invisible, above the horizon without the sun (shaded color) and so possibly visible. The times of sunrise and sunset or when the sun reaches specified altitudes below the horizon (-6°/-12°/-18° for civil, nautical or astronomical twilight) can be shown as curves on the diagrams. By moving a cursor over the diagram, the date and time along with the object's altitude, azimuth, apparent size and magnitude, or the phase of the moon, are displayed. The times of specific astronomical events (e.g. oppositions, greatest elongations, begin and end of retrograde motion, equinoxes, solstices, solar and lunar eclipses) can also be marked in the diagram.

In addition, Planetary, Lunar, and Solar Visibility computes and tabulates the dates of these astronomical events with additional information. Also tables of rising, setting and culmination times of the planets, the moon or the sun can be computed.