The Clementine Atlas of the Moon [Hardcover]

Ben Bussey (Author), Paul D. Spudis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521815282 | ISBN-13: 978-0521815284 | Publication Date: May 3, 2004

The highly successful Clementine mission to the Moon in 1994 gave scientists their first global look at the Moon, and both the near and far side were mapped. This atlas is based on the data collected by the Clementine mission. It covers the entire Moon in 144 Lunar Aeronautical Charts (LACs), and represents the most complete lunar nomenclature database in existence, listing virtually all named craters and other features. This is the first atlas to show the entire lunar surface in uniform scale and format. A section of color plates shows lunar composition and physical properties.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an exceptionally useful volume...it is highly recommended to lunar scientists and advanced amateur astronomers." M.-K. Hemenay, University of Texas at Austin, Choice

"This is the first atlas to show the entire lunar surface in uniform scale and format." Astronomical Society of the Pacific

"...the Clementine Atlas has quickly become one of the lunar references that I use the most. It's the most convenient and accurate resource for identifying names features. It's also a great research tool." Sky & Telescope, Charles A. Wood

Book Description

This up-to-date atlas of the Moon is based on data from the Clemetine and other lunar missions. The first part contains stunning lunar ima gery, complementing a text that describes the Moon, its origin, and geological evolution. A brief history of lunar exploration and details of the Clementine mission are included in this section. The second part of the book consists of lunar maps produced from the digital Clementine data. This complete cartographic product covers the entire Moon, and will be valuable to both professional and amateur astronomers.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (May 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521815282
• ISBN-13: 978-0521815284
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,860,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic resource for lunar enthusiasts, May 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Clementine Atlas of the Moon (Hardcover)

This book represents a groundbreaking and unique resource for both professional and amateur lunar enthusiasts. The first section of the book consists of a concise, yet comprehensive review of lunar exploration and lunar science. The authors bring many years of experience to bear on a subject in which they are clearly well versed and highly knowledgable.
The main section of the book represents the first global atlas of the Moon covering both the near and the far sides, and as such is an unique and unprecendented resource. The Clementine images have been reproduced at a high quality and the use of annotated shaded relief maps ensures an unobscured view of the Clementine mosaics.
Finally, the atlas contains the most complete gazeteer of lunar features ever produced.
I have to disagree with the other reviewer's comments about the book. The book was clearly never intended to primarily be a general interest book about lunar exploration (many excellent books on this subjects already exist). Instead it is intended to be an atlas of use to both professional researchers and amateur astronomers (and would no doubt be an interesting addition to any coffee table), and it fills this role admirably.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a serious lunar atlas for us, January 9, 2007

By 

B. Pohnan (IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Clementine Atlas of the Moon (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a book with a lot of pretty pictures of the lunar surface, take a big pass on The Clementine Atlas of the Moon.

If, however, you are looking for a professional lunar atlas utilizing spacecraft photos, this is your book. The images shown on the pages of The Clementine Atlas of the Moon are reproduced at the same scale and under nearly identical lighting conditions. This alone provides a consistency that has been sorely lacking in lunar atlases made from photographs taken by other NASA spacecraft.

The main part of the atlas features 144 plates made from images taken at the 750nm wavelength by the Clementine spacecraft launched in 1994. Plates generally correspond to the LAC (Lunar Aeronautical Chart) system of the early 1960s. The plates, each with a two degree by two degree grid overlay, are on even number pages. A small inset map of the front and near side is at the upper left-hand corner of each plate and shows its location on the lunar surface. Corresponding maps annotated with the names of various prominent features are on the facing odd number pages. Each map also has a grid and indicates the plate numbers to the north, south, east and west. The atlas must be turned ninety degrees to the right for use and north is always on top (or "up"). At the lunar equator a plate is 20 degrees wide in longitude and 16 degrees height in latitude and physically measures 23 cm by 18.5 cm. The entire moon is covered.

Image quality is very good, but the plates themselves are somewhat bland due to the fact that the lighting is overhead, or at lunar noon. Nonetheless, there was not a single feature for which I searched that I could not find. The somewhat generous plate scale, about 1.1 cm per degree at the equator, and grid makes finding lunar features fairly straightforward if you are armed only with a set of coordinates.

The front part of the book, about 40 pages, describes modern lunar exploration, the Clementine mission itself, and the atlas. This section ends with maps of the near and far sides that are overlaid with the LAC system of chart numbers to provide a quick guide reference guide. The back portion of the atlas offers a 25-page gazetteer which keys in names of lunar features to coordinates and atlas plate numbers. I found only one discrepancy in the gazetteer for features I needed to find. The crater Leakey is shown to be on plate 79, but was not indicated on its corresponding annotated map.

I did find it curious that the six Apollo landing site are designated on the appropriate plates, but Ranger, Surveyor, Luna and Lunokhod landing sites are not. Perhaps "boots on the ground" was the criteria for inclusion. This, however, is nitpicking as The Clementine Atlas of the Moon should be an essential part of any serious student-of-the-moon's library, whether that person is an amateur or professional.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars badly conceived, much too expensive, September 11, 2010

By 

drollere (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Clementine Atlas of the Moon (Hardcover)

this is basically a research reference item, of limited use and interest. it is billed as a compendium of photographs from the clementine lunar orbiter mission, stitched up to create a "universal coverage" atlas of the moon, but it turns out to be both unfocused and weak on substance. most of the clementine photos, for research reasons, were taken when the sun was "close to noon" over the surface, and as a result there is almost no shadow relief in the lunar photos: everything appears as blotches of gray and white (with the exception of the polar regions). instead, on the facing page of each clementine composite, there is a mapmaker's topographic rendition of the exact same area, but in fuzzy shading that lacks any detail, and it's from this source that you get a geological or topographical sense of the surface. unfortunately, this is also the map that is used to show the lunar crater names, along with the various letter name subsidiary craters, so the topographic map is cluttered. worse, the letter names are linked to the primary craters through various "clues" -- orientation to one side of the crater or typeface size -- which creates visual puzzles wherever the map gets crowded. there is an extensive introduction, mostly a history of lunar mapping, and a few full color geologic maps that are not useful because they are only about 6" in diameter. there is a useful lunar gazetteer, but the ensemble is not worth the $100 you'll pay for it.