Ken Murphy / 5:40 am March 10th, 2008

Moon Poster & Map by John Moore. Unknown publication date.

We’ve visited Moon maps before here at Out of the Cradle. One of the enabling tools for opening a new frontier is a knowledge of the ‘lay of the land’, and maps and map reading are key basic elements to get anyone started on knowing where things are on the Moon. Still, there’s more to being on the Moon than just the terrain, and that’s an area in which this poster stands out.

Its size tells me its target audience is educational institutions, from schools and universities to planetariums and museums and it is printed on some pretty sturdy stock. A large, nicely rendered 44.5 cm diameter illustration takes up the center and left of the poster. It’s a very pleasing blue, darker and purpler than the recent reissue of Rukl’s “Atlas of the Moon”, and quite easy on the eyes. It’s hard to tell if it’s entirely hand-drawn, or hand drawing on a background image, but names an extensive number of features, and uses the power of color to highlight different types of features. It is in telescope view, so South is at the top, since a telescope is what you would be using to get the level of detail conveyed here.

Starting at the upper left, then going clockwise, we have sidebars on:
-Seismic activities
-the Polar regions
-the Map Key
-the visible Librations
-basic statistics
-Crater/Impact relationships
-Nine numbered boxes, o/w
*1-5 highlight specific surface features,
*6 illustrates the Mare Nectaris rings,
*7 discusses rayed craters
*8 notes SMART-1, and
*9 is about the orange soil

The bottom right box colorfully illustrates the various theories of how the Moon came to be. To its left is an explanation of how the Lunar Landscape came to be the way it is, and below that an explanation of how craters are formed. To the left is a graphic of the major basins and geologic units, nicely illustrating the dating system used on the Moon. Lastly, in the bottom left is a layout of major compositional data. There’s also a brief discussion of the far side of the Moon just to the bottom right of the Moon map.

Each of the sidebars is densely populated with text, with important words highlighted to stand out. All of the unhighlighted text is white on black background, which some people don’t like, but I find rather ’space-y’. All of the info is accurate to the best of my knowledge, and conveyed without a lot of frillery.

This is a very nice resource. I’m torn between framing it to hang in the Lunar Library, or mounting it on foamboard to use at outreach events.

Definitely a Full Moon.