I needed a break from the Lunar mineralogy, so I decided to delve into the Cultura Lunaris section of the Lunar Library to see if I could find something interesting. I’m not terribly interested in reviewing the Moon-hoaxer books, in part because I have no desire to attract that kind of commentary to my website. I probably should have gone with one of the “Moon in human history” books, but decided that it might be interesting to look at a Christian perspective on Moon science.
For full disclosure purposes, let it be noted that I was baptized at St. Eleanor’s in Collegeville, PA (and my dependent dogtag notes Catholicism as my religion), went to Anglican Church (on occasion) while dad was stationed in England, and was confirmed at Palm Valley Lutheran Church in Round Rock, TX. Still have the Bible, too. That having been said, let it also be noted that I have been an atheist since about the age of 12. I’ve done varying degrees of study of various religions from around the world, and have tried to guide my path through life using the ‘best practices’ that I’ve found therein. I do not see the ‘hand of a creator’ in our universe that others see, although I have to tell you that quantum mechanics does baffle me.
 So I pulled a pair of tomes from the bookshelf by Mssrs. John C. Whitcomb and Donald B. DeYoung. We’ll start off with the first of the two, “The Moon: It’s Creation, Form, and Significance”, published in 1978 by BMH Books and weighing in at 180 pages all-in.
We begin with a foreword by a Mr. Larry Redekopp, PhD, an Assoc. Professor of Aerospace Engineering at USC. He summarizes the premise of the book as follows:
“By the title alone, the authors manifestly declare their underlying tenet which is carefully and distinctly elaborated in the text; i.e., they accept the entire Biblical record as authoritative in regards to beginnings, history, science, and ultimate meanings. The Bible teaches explicitly that the Moon was created instantaneously as a functioning body in the heavens and at a time simultaneous with the sun, planets, stars and galaxies, but three days subsequent to the creation of the earth. Furthermore, the Bible states clearly the intended purpose for the moon’s existence and its proximity to the earth. Their literal acceptance of these truths is amply evident in the text and comprises the cornerstone on which the geology, lunar data, observable phenomena, and origin of the moon are discussed.”
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Howdy Everyone!
This week the 126th Carnival of Space alights at The Gish Bar Times, where Jason orders the show by least to most active bodies of our Solar system, leading to a kind of drunken stumble around the planets and moons we may one day call home.
On the Carnival of the Moon side of things, your friendly Lunar Librarian is most excited by an upcoming event at one of the local community colleges here in the D/FW metroplex. Richland College ran planetarium shows for a long time, and the local Texas Astronomical Society (TAS) used to hold their monthly meetings there. A few years ago it closed down, and came very close to being destroyed as part of the renovations to the campus, with no plan for a replacement. Luckily, some folks care enough to fight, for their right, to (planetarium) Party!
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Howdy Everyone!
Lots of stuff going on in space these days, including the ongoing saga of the Carnival of Space as it traverses the interwebs to bring space to the people who may one day go there. If we can get our act together. Maybe.
The current quasquicentennial edition of the Carnival of Space can be found at Orbiting Frog, containing a potpourri of blog posts from Gallileoscopes to IBEX’s strange findings at the edge of the heliosphere. As always, you’ve got to see it with your own eyes.
Last week the 124th Carnival of Space ended up where we all are - in the gutter (looking at the stars).
For this week’s Carnival of the Moon, we of course lead off with the NASA Centennial Regolith Excavation Challenge. Unwon in prior years, this year saw three competitors take home winnings with the entire $750,000 purse disbursed to Paul’s Robotics, Terra Engineering, and Team Braundo. Here with some background is the lovely and talented Cariann at SpaceVidCast
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“The Once and Future Moon”by Paul Spudis. Published in 1996 by the Smithsonian Institution Press, it weighs in at 308 pages all-in. No errors noted.
I decided to re-visit this one for a review when I realized that I couldn’t remember when I first read it, having read so many Moon books subsequent to this one. Paul autographed the copy in the Lunar Library on October 17th, 2002, which IIRC was at the World Space Congress, where he had just gone head-to-head with Bob Zubrin on the relative merits of our Moon and Mars respectively. So I would have read it before then. I’m pretty sure it was back in ‘99 that I picked it up, back when I was still working the Wall Street Desk as a credit analyst for BNP, juste nouvellement BNP Paribas. This is an important point that will touched upon later.
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Manned Spacecraft Center Flight Control Division
“Lunar Module Orientation Guide & Compartment Familiarization”
Apogee Books
2009
ISBN13: 978-1-926-59211-4
Publisher’s Web Site
Godwin, Robert (Ed.)
“Saturn V - Apollo: Lunar Orbital Rendezvous Planning Guide”
Apogee Books
2009
ISBN13: 978-1-926-59210-7
Publisher’s Web Site
“The Moon”
HD CoolVision, LLC
2009
01:15:00
Publisher’s Web Site
Librarian’s Note: Serene Selene…this is a nice ambient background video of our Moon moving across a fixed field of view, and works best on flatscreens. It makes a very nice “Moon in my Room” for grown-ups. Also provides many teachable moments at parties as the image is sharp enough to be able to point out numerous features and even perturbations in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Smith, Caroline, Sara Russell & Gretchen Benedix
“Meteorites”
Firefly Books
2009
ISBN: 1-554-07515-7
Publisher’s Web Site
Librarian’s Note: “Ooh, that’s pretty!” said the lovely young cashier whilst looking at the cover at the bookstore where I found this title. Ding! Teachable moment. “Well miss, this is a thin section of a meteorite [briefly explains thin sections] and judging by the yellowish color of the mineral it’s olivine, and the lighter stuff is pure iron. Not sure what the dark blotches are.”
It’s a Pallasite, one of the rarer types of meteorites, but that part escaped me at that moment even though I have one in the Lunar Library, or at least a slice of one. She then started paging through the book oohing and aahing at the various luminous thin sections, exclaiming “This stuff is so cool”. I think I foresee a future market for space jewelry with things like meteorite thin sections mounted on a thin LED to illuminate the colors found in the minerals.
It is a nicely done book and quite comprehensive in its 107 pages, and I think we have a strong contender here for a 2009 Best of the Moon in the Big Rocks from Space category.
Parry,Dan
“Moon Shot: The Inside Story of Mankind’s Greatest Adventure”
Ebury Press
2009
ISBN13: 978-0-091-92837-7
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I haven’t been good of late about keeping up with the Carnival of Space. You try managing a mid-nine-figures portfolio of syndicated loans at your day job and see how much space work you can get done…
Looking back I can see that the last CoS I blogged about was 115, and I see that this week’s is…the 123rd. Wow, two months of slack. What a Gen Xer.
This week’s edition sets up the big (really big. Like, cosmic big) top over at Weird Warp, where chrdann blogs about physics and space. The 123rd edition features a very nice image of a Soyouz docking with our Moon in the background, and a great in-your-face to the Moon Hoaxers article from Cumbrian Sky.
Who also happens to be host for the 122nd Carnival. That show was all about the water on the Moon, and the introductory photograph is priceless.
The 121st Carnival of Space took up residence at Next Big Future.
The 120th Carnival of Space was found at Music of the Spheres.
The 119th Carnival of Space paid a visit to the Planetary Society Blog.
The 118th Carnival of Space was once again at Cumbrian Sky.
The 117th Carnival of Space stopped by Simostronomy.
The 116th Carnival of Space took up residence at Habitation Intention.
While we’re doing Carnivals, there’s been so much interesting stuff going on recently regarding our Moon that I wanted to do a little Carnival of our Moon to share with everyone.
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