Craters of the Near Side Moon

Our closest celestial body deserves many good books covering its features and geology. This books does not disappoint in that category. I doubt that anyone who look at the moon does not wonder about its features which have always been a source of fascination, is it a Man on the Moon, or a Rabbit or some other mystical creature? In reality it has always been the moon's craters and other surface features doing their daily Shadow Dancing in the Sunlight as the Moon changes Phase.This book is your guide to 662 of those prominent craters and companion Sub-craters (around 5000) and I believe it will be a valuable companion to anyone who want to explore the magic of the Moon near side. Most of the lunar features are visible with a Good Pair of Binoculars or even a cheap department store Telescope.Features:- Guide Maps of the Moon showing each Quadrant and its prominent features.- Guide Maps of the Limbs, Nearside, Far-side, North and South Poles.- Moon Phases covering 2014 up to 2018.- Alphabetical list of the Craters and their other companion sub-craters o Location for easy finding, Map, Long and Latitude table. o General Description and unique features. o Earth-based perspective Image o Aerial, topographical Image.What can be done better?The cover and binding of the Book are terrible considering its thickness and that it will be used as a viewing reference on possibly many nights. Maybe divide the Book into possibly 4 smaller Booklets in Alphabetical order and use more sturdy binding and material or such as Spiral-bound.Conclusion:This is a Wonderful book and deserves a good sturdy finishing to withstand those Cold Viewing Nights. I will give it 5 Stars because content wise it deserves it.

I keep this book by my side to look up craters referenced in other books. The telescopic and vertical views of each crater are extremely valuable. This is a great reference book that should be in any selenophile's library.

I would have liked to have written a positive review of this book in view of all the work that has gone into it, but unfortunately it has too many flaws. It appears to be self-published, which could excuse some of the errors due to lack of experience by the author or financial constraints. A professional editor would have been able to improve the layout considerably. The pictures are well-chosen but the reproduction lacks the fine, crisp resolution expected in a book of this nature, and which is much better in the "21st Century Atlas of the Moon" by Wood and Collins (a book that also is flawed). The data given are generally useful and reliable, but the main problems occur in the text, with awkward syntax and grammar, spelling and typographical errors, and confusing sentence construction. Probably the worst errors involve hyphenation, which is idiosyncratic and clumsy in the extreme and very disturbing to the reader. Examples are "th-at" (p. 388), "rig-ht" and "th-en" (p. 389), "obse-rvers" and "fl-oor" (p. 390), and "pr-obably" (p. 391), just to take four consecutive pages picked at random. An editor would not have broken words up in that way but would have used a slightly smaller point size to fit the words to the space available. Alternatively, the overlarge top and bottom margins to the pages could be reduced to make more room for the text. Also, there should be more space between text and images or line borders, not the fraction of a millimetre that is used. If a second edition is envisaged, then improvements to the layout and text would result in a very useful book.

This is an outstanding book and a must for any serious lunar observer. It has pictures, information and description of the named craters on the Near Side Moon. The author is extremely knowledgeable and his descriptions are technical but entertaining.The only complain that I have (and hence 4 stars) is the editing. As some others have pointed out, the layout of the text, pictures, and the hyphenation of the a little bit awkward. I would love to see a serious editor (like Springer of better yet, Cambridge) publish this book!

I have one primary complaint about this book. It suffers from miserable editing. It is chock full of grammatical, syntactical, and spelling errors. A good editor would have eliminated these distractions, for which I can imagine no excuse.Having vented on this topic, I will add that this book was enormous fun to peruse, page by page, crater by crater. If you enjoy observing the moon and its features with a telescope, I consider it an indispensable guide, saturated with marvelous photographs and statistics. After reading this book, you will feel as if you actually visited the moon! I recommend it highly, despite the editing issues

Moore gives us a good brief description of the crater and its possible morphology. Also very good is a list of the sub-craters (as applicable) and where they are located with the lunar lat and long but also where they are located on the general region map. By working with both the Earth perspective view and with the aerial view of the crater, one can get a good idea of the form of the crater and its immediate area. Recommended for anyone interested in craters on the Moon whether they are an observer or not.

This is an awesome reference book for serious lunar observers. I have been observing the Moon for over 50 years and it is the very helpful not so much for it's limited descriptions of the craters but for it's wonderful images of the craters at different scales. I was surprised how inexpensive the book was considering it appears to be self published and printed in the U.S. Great buy! Thank you John Moore for creating such a great reference book!

This book contains a wealth of crater info for those who observe the Moon. However, the "Print-On-Demand" process employed on many books published today available from Amazon leaves much to be desired. Particularly with the binding of a book this thick, it will not hold together long. Nevertheless, I still recommend it.

This is a 'must' for all moon-watchers.Over 600 craters are presented in photographic, map and descriptive detail, with some more extensive and enjoyable comments about the better-known ones. It can enhance any observing experience, or just provide pleasant and informative browsing.

very good book with plenty of images and photo,s

Very flimsy binding. I don't think it will stand much use.

Superb book

Dieses Buch behandelt auf über 700 Seiten die von der Erde aus sichtbaren Mondkrater.Zu Beginn erhält man auf 18 Seiten eine kurze Einführung über die verschiedenen Kratertypen und ihre Entstehung. Ebenso befinden sich Übersichtskarten der vier Mondquadranten in diesem Teil.Den Hauptteil des 1,5kg schweren Buches machen aber die Beschreibungen der benannten Krater auf der uns zugewandten Seite des Mondes aus. Für jeden der ca. 660 Krater spendiert Moore eine komplette Seite.Die Seiten sind jeweils gleich aufgeteilt und enthalten für den jeweiligen Krater:- eine Ansicht von der Erde aus- eine Übersicht mit der Position der Nebenkrater- eine Lokalisierung des Kraters auf der sichtbaren Mondseite- Koordinaten und Größe des Hauptkraters- eine Liste mit den Koordinaten und Größen der Nebenkrater- ein zusätzliches Bild des Kraters bzw. von Details (meist senkrecht aufgenommen)- einen Absatz mit einer Beschreibung des Kraters und seiner Besonderheiten.Laut Klappentext sind die Koordinaten und Größen der Krater alle entsprechend der offiziellen Werte der IAU.Am Ende des Buches stellt Moore auf gut 20 Seiten noch die anderen Oberflächenstrukturen wie Rillen, Furchen und Kaps vor.Abgerundet wird das Buch durch einen achtseitigen Index.Die Bilddaten für das Buch stammen von der LROC des Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiters, die auch die Grundlage für andere Mondatlanten bieten.Noch ein Wort zur Bild- und Druckqualität:Zumindest bei meinem Exemplar spiegelt sich hier die Publikationsweise als Print-on-Demand wieder. Die Qualität würde ich eher in der Kategorie Laserdruck denn in der Kategorie "Bildband" einordnen. Das tut dem Spaß aber keinen wirklichen Abbruch.Das Papier ist normale Buchqualität (nicht "Hochglanz-Bildband") und daher NICHT feuchtigkeitsresistent.Der Inhalt ist klar 5-Sterne, einen Stern Abzug gebe ich wegen der nicht optimalen Druckqualität.