Discover the Moon [Paperback]

Jean Lacroux (Author), Christian Legrand (Author), Christopher Sutcliffe (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521535557 | ISBN-13: 978-0521535557 | Publication Date: March 22, 2004

The Moon is accessible to everyone. Because it is easy to observe everywhere, even in big cities, it is a prime target for aspiring astronomers and for those who are merely curious about the night sky. This easy-to-use guide to discovering lunar sites takes the reader through fourteen observing sessions from New Moon to Full Moon. For each evening, the book shows which craters, mountains and other features can be seen, and how to find them. Each photograph shows what the observer actually sees through a telescope, solving the usual difficulties of orientation confronting beginners. Images are shown as they appear through both refracting and reflecting telescopes. Maps printed on the book's front and back flaps show the whole Moon with sites as seen through a refractor, through a Newtonian reflector, or, when turned upside-down, through binoculars. Jean Lacroux has been a columnist for the French astronomy magazine Ciel et Espace for 25 years. He has published four successful amateur astronomy books in French. Christian Legrand is an engineer and amateur astronomer, who has been a passionate lunar observer since the Apollo missions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A colorful and good-looking introduction to lunar observing." Sky & Telescope

"This book is highly observable friendly. All images have south up and each is printed twice on as a mirror image to match the view through a telescope with a star diagonal. Terrific idea!" ASTRONOMY

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521535557
• ISBN-13: 978-0521535557
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discover the Moon by Jean Lacroux and Christian Legrand, March 27, 2007

By 

Rocket Scientist (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Discover the Moon (Paperback)

"Discover the Moon," by Jean Lacroux and Christian Legrand, is an excellent book for someone with a new telescope. The Moon is an ideal first target. It is bright enough to be found even in a light polluted city environment, and there is more detail visible on the lunar surface than the rest of the universe combined. The authors take the observer on a night by night tour of the Moon's surface features, featuring an overview map for each night, and detailed close-ups of interesting areas. They follow the sunrise terminator as it reveals Lunar "seas," craters, mountains, valleys, rills, faults, and domes. The best feature of the book is that the overview maps and the close-up highlight areas are shown both in the inverted view presented by Newtonian (reflector) telescopes and the mirror image (left and right reversed) view presented by refractor and compound telescopes that use a star diagonal. This is important, because there is nothing more frustrating to the beginning astronomer than maps that do not match his view through the telescope. "Discover the Moon" is the ONLY book to present this invaluable feature. The book highlights over 400 lunar features for observation. Originally written in French, the translation is quite good, except for some legends embedded in illustrations. Overall, the book is an excellent value for the price, and highly recommended to any beginning lunar observer.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discover the Moon at it's best!, February 9, 2007

By 

John C. Fox (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discover the Moon (Paperback)

Discover the Moon by Jean Lacroux & Christian Legrand
Cambridge University Press, 2003, soft cover, 9" x 7", 143 pages


As books on the Moon go, this one is most unique in its concept. Besides having a bright yellow and blue cover, making it easy to spot in the day or night, the layout of the moon's images are both viewed as in a refractor/catadioptic with a star diagonal and a Newtonion telescope and on facing pages.

The book starts out with a chapter on how to use it following with explanations of moon astronomy basics. Next, it moves into equipment, when an how to observe, and basic astrophotogaphy and electronic imaging.

The main body of the book is devoted to observing the moon night by night starting after the new moon and ending with the full. Each photo of the moon's phase has a compass/telescope icon letting you know which telescope orientation you are studying. The inside front and back covers have a full view photo of the full moon in the proper orientation for each view. Each phase photo has boxes with numbers highlighting the most interesting features of that evenings view. The text corresponds with the numbers giving you a written description of the numbered feature. A yellow box in the lower right side page lists the features numerically for a quick glance of the nights highlights. In addition, most pages have a blue box giving interesting bits of lunar information.
The last chapters deals with observing the moon in its waning gibbous phase with page references as to which photos match from the waxing phases featured in the main body of the book. The book concludes with a list of lunar resources and a modest glossary of terms.

Originally published as Decouvrir la Lune in French in 2000, and translated
In to English by Cambridge University Press. This is occasionally evident in some of the captions for the illustrations that are still in French. My only wish is that it was spiral bound so that it would lay flat at the observing table. None the less, this is an outstanding book for those "lunar-tics" that can't get enough of our nearest celestial neighbor.

Jack Fox, Richmond Astronomical Society

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars User-Friendly tours of the lunar surface, November 29, 2005

By 

urban astronomer "starbux" (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Discover the Moon (Paperback)

Easy-going writing style and illustration format makes for easy tours of some of the most interesting lunar highlights from night-to-night. This is the easiest to follow of all the books on observing the moon, and even if you are using a refractor or cassegrain telescope (with reversed image viewing) you won't have any trouble navigating your way. Best introductory book.