EarthWatch displays a dynamic world map clock and almanac information panel.

FEATURES:

• The option to choose from two map types: political or natural.
• A graphical presentation of the daylight and night areas of the earth.
• Selection of any date from the year -4000 to + 4000.
• Comparison of sunrise/sunset times with those of the previous day.
• Lat/long and major city names at the mouse-driven cursor.
• Sunrise and sunset times for the specified location and date.
• Current seasons for the date selected.
• Days until the beginning of the next season for the date selected.
• The option to display world time zone boundaries with the local hour in each.
• The option to show the sun on the map where it is at the zenith (directly overhead).
• The option to display the analemma (sun's apparent annual track).
• The option to show the moon on the map where it is at the zenith.
• The option to overlay major lat/long lines, Arctic and Antarctic circles, and Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn latitudes on the map.
• The option to highlight the locations of over 350 major cities.
• An animation option, with pre-settable time step increments, either forward or backward in time.
• The option to display a sundial with corrections for longitude, daylight savings time, and the equation of time.
• An online help feature with index and hyperlinks.
• Any EarthWatch setup may be saved in a configuration file for subsequent restoration.

....It's 8AM Eastern Standard Time. Has the sun set in Bombay? Has it risen in Kathmandu? It's already bedtime in Melbourne, but they're just finishing lunch in Timbuktu. Don't call Anchorage yet, nor Nuku Alofa, Tonga -- it's still the wee morning hours there.

Where is the moon directly overhead now? How many days until spring? How much earlier (or later) were your sunrise and sunset today than yesterday?

How many hours of daylight were there in Pompeii on August 24 in the year 79, when the entire city was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius? How did the moon look from Wapakoneta, Ohio on July 21, 1969, when native son Neil Armstrong walked it? Want to view the earth on the total eclipse day of September 2, 2426?

The year is 79 A.D. It's a lazy late summer day, just before noon in Pompeii, Italy. Little did they know...

This sample screen shows the natural (satellite image) map option. The Almanac Panel (box below the map image) shows ephemeris information such as the local and Greenwich date and time, time zone, Julian date, season, location name (Pompeii), location lat/long, location sunrise & sunset, sun's declination, equation of time, and age & phase of the moon. Pompeii is highlighted on the map with a blinking dot. The sun is shown as a yellow disk at its zenith (presently in Central Africa), while the 8.2-day-old moon, shown in first-quarter phase, is directly overhead above the northwestern tip of Australia.

The latitude and longitude of the cursor's location on the map is tracked and displayed as you move it with your mouse.

The political map and time zone options are shown on this image. This historic day also occurred near the summer solstice, hence again the widened daylight area in the northern hemisphere. For much of the latitudes above the arctic circle there is continuous daylight, and, conversely, continuous darkness below the antarctic circle.

Note the top margin has bars indicating the dates for the map portions east and west of the International Date Line. The Analemma, or figure 8 pattern traced by the apparent path of the sun in the sky during the course of a year, is also shown. The sun is near the summer solstice position at the very top of the Analemma.

Here we look into the future. There will be an eclipse of the sun in Sudan, Africa on September 2, 2426. As the time of totality approaches, the moon's image -- a dark circle for the new moon -- overtakes the sun's, until they are superimposed as shown.

This screen showing the date of Galileo's death has major cities highlighted. Well into winter, daylight is greatly reduced in the northern hemisphere. The "Show Cities" option has been chosen, highlighting over 350 major cities. Whenever one is pointed at by the cursor, its name is displayed in the lower right corner of the map.