Lunar Atlas

Includes a detailed map of the near side of the Moon.

Featuring 388 high-resolution photographs and concise descriptions of the Moon's topography, this atlas is an indispensable guide for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers.

A photographic atlas of the moon with descriptions of topographical features; overlays identifying key features in photographs; and a day-to-day guide to observing the moon by eye, binoculars or telescope.

"The 21st Century Atlas of the Moon is uniquely designed for the backyard, amateur astronomer. As an indispensable guide to telescopic moon observation, it can be used at the telescope or as a desk reference. It is both accessible to the novice and valuable to the expert. With over two hundred Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images, the highest quality images of the moon ever taken, this atlas illustrates the Moon in high resolution. With special maps of the limb and far side, LRO altimetry-based images of major basins and their mare ridge, and maps of the Apollo and Soviet landing sites, this guide offers a level of detail never before seen in an atlas of the Moon. The Atlas clearly provides unprecedented detail on more than one thousand named Moon features while recommending additional features and images to observe." -- Publisher's website.

The first photographic lunar atlas to show the Moon as it appears through SCTs – the world’s most popular telescopes! Features the superb photographs from the original Hatfield Lunar Atlas Detailed key maps for every photograph identify lunar features Inset IAU-standard photographs, to help users learn to identify features on conventional Moon maps

In 2004, it became obvious that Henry Hatfield’s original atlas wasn’t suitable for all current commercially-made amateur telescopes. Newtonian telescopes and astronomical refractors – for many years the only choice for amateurs – invert the observed image. The standard Hatfield Atlas therefore follows the IAU (International Astronomical Union) convention of having maps (and photographs) with South at the top and West on the left: an inverted image. However, the current ranges of Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov telescopes – that’s most of those manufactured by Meade, Celestron, and many others – don’t invert the observed image but instead reverse it left-for-right. That’s with North at the top and East on the left. Because of the way the human visual system works, it is almost impossible to mentally ‘mirror-image’ a map to compare it with the view through the eyepiece , so even turning an IAU-standard atlas upside-down doesn’t help! This new SCT version of the Atlas solves this problem for observers. Identification of lunar features is made quick and easy. The new, digitally re-mastered second edition vastly improves the clarity and definition of the original photographs – significantly beyond the resolution limits of the photographic grains present in earlier atlas versions – whilst preserving the layout and style of the original publications. This has been achieved by merging computer-visualized Earth-based views of the lunar surface, derived from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, with scanned copies of Commander Hatfield’s photographic plates, using the author’s own software. The result is a The Hatfield SCT Lunar Atlas for 21st century amateur telescopes up to and beyond 12-inch aperture. It contains all the features that made the original so widely used: a combination of an index of all International Astronomical Union named primary lunar features, and twelve chart areas help to locate any named lunar features of interest that can each be examined under typically five different states of illumination. Close ups of interesting features are also included. The new Atlas is supplemented by an introduction to its use, a short description of the digital re-mastering technique, and a completely new section describing lunar observing techniques. At the end of the atlas there is an index of all named features and crater diameters, along with a summary table of the dates and times that the original Hatfield images represent.

The Hatfield Photographic Lunar Atlas has been long regarded as the finest photographic lunar atlas available and remains as a model of accuracy and clarity. This fully revised version is completely updated with new maps, names and technical data. The superb large-scale photographic plates and the accompanying full-scale maps make this an exceptionally easy-to-use lunar atlas for the field or observatory.

Showcasing features just a mile across in 47 high-resolution images.