The Moon and How to Observe It (Astronomers' Observing Guides)

This revolutionary new book is written for practical amateur astronomers who not only want to observe, but want to know the details of exactly what they are looking at. The Moon is the most commonly observed of all astronomical objects. This is the first book to deal equally with the Moon itself - its formation, geology, and history - as well as the practical aspects of observation. The concept of the book - and of the series - is to present an up-to-date detailed description of the Moon, including its origins, history, and geology (part one); and then (part two) to consider how best to observe and record it successfully using commercially-available equipment. The Moon and How to Observe It is a mine of information for all levels of amateur observers, from the beginner to the experienced

Customer Reviews:

Good for observing, missing some useful info

By Bruce E Bowman - October 26, 2009

This book is a good, basic intro to observing the Moon. But it could have been so much better.

Part I gives an intro to the Moon's structure, origins and -- for lack of a better term -- geology. However, the writer is clearly out of his element here, particularly in the discussion of the Moon's origin. He uses technical terms that are inaccurate -- the one point where he talks about some particular lunar lavas being "ductile" sticks in my mind. A co-author -- or a good, knowledgeable editor -- would help here. The discussions of libration and eclipses are adequate.

Part II is where the book shines. A lot of time has obviously been spent at the eyepiece, viewing the Moon, and this section on observing really shows that. However, even here, we can get fairly pedantic; especially when the author credits himself for photographs, and continues to do so, over and over again.

The book is really lacking in two things:

1) There are no data tables of... read more

lacks coordinates

By JBLP - July 28, 2008

I agree with previous reviewer. It is a nice book with a lot of nice photographs easy to read for a new comer. But the absence of coordinates for the described lunar features makes difficult the connection with a detailed lunar atlas such as found at lunar and Planetary Institute http://www.lpi.usra.edu/ or published by the National Geographic Society. Most photographs are oriented south up north down and other in the reverse direction. You have to find out.

I'm Romantic about the Moon; but as an Amateur Astronomer I Love Moonless Nights!! Well; until I got this book ...

By Busy Bee "Smiley" - August 18, 2009

No matter who you talk to, its always roughly a similar story, the first object to look at when you get your Telescope out of the box is the moon, its easy to find and quiet fascinating. Within few weeks or even days it becomes a nuisance when viewing other deep sky objects and planets; besides other light pollution and limitations. You look at the moon, you see craters and dark lava, all looks the same; one crater is like the other. It became more interesting when I got the Moon Maps and Moon Phase Maps and the Lunar 100 List to spice things up and most recently the LCROSS space mission and Apollo 11 40th anniversary which I witnessed at the age of 4 in 1969 to get me revive my interest in the moon. Then I purchased this book and the moon started taking on a whole new dimension. The Moon is fascinating and is full of history from its creation to the most recent events those natural and man made. I'm no longer looking at Craters, Faults, and Edges and Rimae the same any more but... read more