Moon gazing

Tom Kerss Collins £8.99 PB There are many books on the market concerning the Moon, so do we really need another one? Our celestial neighbour is well described in Moon gazing, albeit briefly. Although the book is only 96 pages long, Tom Kerss, broadcaster and astronomy populariser based at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, manages to cover a broad range of nitty-gritty lunar facts, ranging from the phases to the Apollo missions, and combine it with a detailed practical section on lunar photography using a smartphone or DSLR affixed to a telescope. The most exciting and informative segment is the 32-page ‘Introduction to the Lunar Atlas’. Kerss has divided the Moon into 16 sections and included lunar photographs for each of those sections, along with a map for readers to learn the names of the various craters and various maria. There is an informative two-page segment on surface features and the categories they fall into, which ties in nicely with the maps and provides enough information to identify the features on the Moon’s surface.

Moongazing doesn’t cover any original topics per se, and there are many books out there covering similar ground, but it is a great reference guide for the beginner or amateur moonthusiast. The small size and weight of the book means it can be easily popped into a bag for a night’s lunar observing, and beginners will find the feature-observing log template beneficial.

So the answer is yes: we always need new books on the Moon! Whether observing using binoculars or a telescope, there is much to learn from this instructive and inspiring book, which will appeal to Moon fans everywhere.