Ken Murphy / 3:53 am January 16th, 2008

“New Atlas of the Moon” by Thierry Legault and Serge Brunier. Published in 2006 by Firefly Books, it is a translation by Klaus Brasch of “Le Grand Atlas de la Lune” published in France in 2004 by Larousse.

I was reading through this one at dinner one night and the waiter commented that it looked like a really nice book. It is, with stunning (processed) photography of the Moon that is crisp and pleasing to the eye. The book also benefits from a large format, with pages measuring 36cm tall by 27cm wide. That’s 14 3/16″ x 10 10/16″ for you non-metric types.

The book starts with a side by side of a naked eye/binocular drawing of the Moon, and an inverted telescope view of the Moon (where N is S and E is W) on the facing page, which allows for quick mental reversion of what’s seen in the telescope eyepiece to the way we’re used to seeing images of the Moon. It then dives right in to a day to day look at the Moon as first the dawn terminator, and then the nightfall terminator sweep across the face of the Moon. We start with the New Moon, the thinnest of crescents which the authors claim can be seen, under ideal conditions, as early as 12 to 20 hours after passing the Earth-Sun line. A page is also devoted to Earthshine on the Moon, which allows us to see that the relatively un-illuminated rest of the Moon is still there.

On the third day of the new month we get our first full page illustration, showing Mare Crisium in all its splendor, and major craters like Petavius and Langrenus. On the left side are smaller illustrations of the crescent Moon for both telescope and binocular view. The book uses small graphics of each instrument to note the orientation of all the photographic images. A large sidebar notes Moon history of interest. This is also the first day with a clear transparency that names many of the major features. These are included for every other day, with over a dozen new features included each time, and retaining a few of the earlier notations to allow for easy orientation.

This basic format is carried through the 27th day, when the crescent is shrinking rapidly in preparation for the next New Moon.

The next section is on Lunar Cartography, and takes a tour of the various mare, sinuses (sinii?), and highlands, and notes major characteristics and features of each, which are the best days to view, on which maps it’s found in the first section, and a graphic of the Moon with a target overlay showing where the features under discussion are found. This section runs to 42 pages, allowing a lot of information to be conveyed. An example is Petavius, over on the Eastern edge of the Moon, which is shown under two different magnifications. We learn that the crater walls are 3.2km high and the central uplift is a good 1.7km tall. Palitzsch valley, just to the east, might be an even more interesting exploration for future rock climbers on the Moon.

The last, and shortest, section is on the Moon’s movements, using traditional images to show why the Moon looks the way it does, and how eclipses happen. This is followed by a practical guide to the different tools used in observing the Moon, depending on the kinds of things you want to look at, and how the images were processed for the book. A Lunar Calendar through 2010 (when I get a Full Moon on my birthday), a glossary, and a short bibliography round out the effort.

This is a book that I fell in love with the first time I saw it in Paris. I immediately picked up a French language copy for the Lunar Library and was mesmerized by the large, crisp pictures of our Moon. Its large size makes it not-so-handy as an at-the-telescope reference, but the layout makes it a really nice pre-observing-session strategy map to get a sense of where one would want to look on a particular evening. Other uses:

-Its large size makes it a great coffee table book, which is ideal for getting more people interested in our Moon.
-The larger size print (and large size) make it appealing to younger readers who might not otherwise approach a Moon book.
-The exposition is pretty straightforward, but also loaded with facts and information, making it a good educational tool.
-It makes a great gift. I donated a copy to our recent NSS of North Texas “Santa Space Toy” drive for Santa’s Helpers, and a copy to the youth programs at the Frontiers of Flight museum at Love Field.

Ultimately, this is a very well-done book. The layout is identical to the French-language edition, and quite pleasing to the eye. The transparent overlays are quite useful, and the photography is marvelous. It’s not as useful as Rukl’s “Atlas of the Moon” or Bussey & Spudis’ “Clementine Atlas of the Moon” as a reference for finding particular craters, but that’s not really its purpose. As an appealing introduction to learning more about our neighbour in space it is absolutely great. The waiter was certainly impressed.

Could it rate anything other than a Full Moon?