The latest book releases for curious minds

WHO’S WHO IN THE MOON

A BOOK ABOUT APPRECIATING OUR NEAREST COSMIC NEIGHBOUR

AUTHOR BRIAN JONES AND KATRIN RAYNOR

PUBLISHER PEN AND SWORD

PRICE £25 / $39.95

RELEASE OUT NOW

H ave you ever watched the Moon using a telescope or a pair of binoculars? You’re probably in the minority if you have. Based on our highly scientific office survey, most people have given the Moon no more than a few minutes of naked-eye observation on a clear night, which is to thoroughly underappreciate one of the most fascinating and accessible cosmic sights the average person can experience from the surface of Earth. A chapter on how to properly appreciate the Moon sets the stage for this lunar love-in, with the authors laying out what the reader is missing out on if they’re not using optics to scan its rugged surface at different times of the lunar day.

Readers with an artistic side can get to know the contours and shades of the Moon’s incredible topography by following the step-by-step guide to sketching craters. And before Who’s Who in the Moon discusses the many named features of the Moon, there’s a pictorial chapter showcasing attractive lunar photography, just so you know exactly how breathtaking the moonscape is. The ‘who’s who’ bit of this book stretches for over 100 pages, detailing how craters, lunar maria (the Moon’s vast plains) and other features were named, along with labelled photographs. The sheer length of this section, as well as the number of famous figures immortalised by having a lunar feature named after them, is a testament to the time that we have spent observing the Moon across human history. You might be able to point out the crater that was named after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, but you’ll be able to put many more names to craters after reading Who’s Who in the Moon.