The Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas [Hardcover]

Jeremy Cook (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 185233018X | ISBN-13: 978-1852330187 | Publication Date: March 19, 1999 | Edition: 1

Long regarded as the finest photographic lunar atlas available, The Hatfield Lunar Atlas is a model of accuracy and clarity. This new version updates some of the maps, names and technical data, but uses Commander Henry Hatfield's original - and unexcelled - photographic plates, taken with a purpose-built 30 cm reflector. The Atlas is divided into sixteen sections, each of which is made up of five or more photographic plates together with a map. Each map is based primarily of the facing plate. Where detail is lacking on this primary plate (particularly near the Moon's limb) supplementary detail is provided by one or more of the other plates in a particular section.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 109 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (March 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185233018X
• ISBN-13: 978-1852330187
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,914,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Identifying Moon Landmarks, October 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas (Hardcover)

I saw this book for the first time last night in a Planetary Astronomy class at a local college, and ordered one for myself this morning.

It's exactly what I was looking for to identify features on the moon. It consists of about 20 plates (very sharp pictures) of the moon. The plates are on the right page, and on the left page is the matching drawing. The drawings are the outlines of the craters, mountains, valleys, rills, seas, and other objects, with their names. At the bottom of the left page, selected names are listed with their sizes, in kilometers. Relative ages are also indicated.

After a few short introductory pages, the rest of the book consists of pictures and drawings. There is an index page near the front of the book that shows the area of the moon that each plate covers.

The only reason I did not give the book 5 stars is because it does not have an index and grid system to help find a particular feature on the drawing page. If you are looking for the crater, "Archimedes", you are just going to have to search until you find its name on that page.

Still, if you have an interest in identifying features on the moon, this book will do it for you. I highly recommend it.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one and only., February 9, 2001

By 

Bill Wiegert (The Belmont Society - Belmont, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas (Hardcover)

The importance of a good reference is incalculable for those who do any serious lunar observing, or for those who need to know exactly what they're looking at (or at least what they should be seeing). The Hatfield Atlas is by far the best lunar reference available. But rather than subject you to further ramblings-on about the merits of this book, I'll just state some straightforward points in simple fact:

The membership of our club includes about 140 dedicated amateur and professional astronomers. Many of us gather at our dark site facility to attend monthly star parties. If there is even the slightest moon that evening there may be a dozen or so telescopes trained on it well before dark. And those of us who do any serious lunar observing may already be consulting a single particular book which is kept on a desk in the observatory. Care to guess which book that is? "Yo, who's got the Hatfield's?".

The Hatfield Atlas is our 'official' lunar reference. Other references have been left out for the membership to browse and sample. Two of them drew favorable comments about their indices and cross references (and which are explicit advantages over Hatfield's). But as expected, we always go back to the Hatfield Atlas, and there are reasons. Plain and simple, you won't find better or more accurate renderings anywhere. If you want an exact reference, or if you need to match detail and gradations with what you see in the eyepiece, this is the book to have.

The first time one examines a reference of this quality, there is generally some astonishment at the high level of detail involved. My first inclination was to 'read' it from cover-to-cover, as one would regard a centennial issue of National Geographic. You will likely find the renderings here to be of equal or better quality and possibly more fascinating.

I highly recommend the Hatfield Atlas for both amateur and professional astronomers who have a need for the finest lunar reference available.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Questionable Quality for the Millenium, January 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas (Hardcover)

This book of elderly, sometimes fuzzy photos and rough drawings is outrageously overpriced, even with the small Amazon discount.
Try to find a copy of the far better Rukl Moon Atlas, or write lots of letters to Kalmback to get them to reprint Rukl.
The only virtue of this book is the paucity of any Moon Atlas - a juicy opportunity for someone - Hello Msrs. Tirion, Dickinson, Ottewell, Crossen, Kepple or O'Meara?
Help, help!