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J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 109, 5, 1999, p.289
Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-62248-4. Pp xix + 242, £37.50 (hbk).
reviewed by Patrick Moore
The Moon is indeed rich in detail. The broad dark areas, so easily visible with the naked eye, have long been regarded as seas, and given appropriate names; but with the other features – principally the craters – there has been considerable disagreement. Only in recent years has the situation finally been stabilised.
Early naked-eye drawings were naturally rudimentary; as well as harbouring the famed Man in the Moon, the lunar world was home to rabbits, sheep, frogs and even dragons. It was only with the advent of the telescope, in the early seventeenth century, that proper mapping began. In fact the first telescopic map was due to Thomas Harriot, one-time tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh; it pre-dated Galileo's chart, although it remained largely unknown until 1965, when, by good fortune, I located it and arranged for its publication. Names were soon added, and there were various early systems of nomenclature which did not survive. Then, in 1651, the Jesuit astronomer Riccioli introduced the system of naming craters and other features after famous persons, usually – though not always – astronomers. It is this system, greatly extended and modified, which has stood the test of time, and most of Riccioli's names are still in use.
Improved telescopes led to improved lunar maps, and new names were needed. There was a time, between the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when various selenographers introduced arbitrary systems of their own, leading to considerable chaos and even some unscientifically acrimonious controversy. Eventually the situation was stabilised by the International Astronomical Union, and today the accepted system is coherent and logical, both with regard to the familiar hemisphere and to the 'far side'of the Moon, which is always turned away from the Earth and which could not be mapped before the introduction of space research methods.
This book tells the whole story, starting with the frogs and rabbits and taking it through to the present day. There are excellent map reproductions, and the text itself is very detailed, so that clearly it is the result of many years of careful, painstaking research. In fact, everything that you want to know about the history of lunar nomenclature will be found here.
Ewen Whitaker has been in the forefront of mapping the Moon since before the start of the Space Age, and is justifiably regarded as the world's leading authority upon the subject. He has very close links with the BAA; he joined the Lunar Section, then directed by H. P. Wilkins, while he was still working at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and himself acted as Director before emigrating to the United States to join the lunar team set up by G. P. Kuiper. He has maintained his close links with our Association, and was awarded the Goodacre Medal in 1982. He is a regular and very welcome visitor to our meetings whenever he is on this side of the Atlantic. He is to be heartily congratulated upon producing a book which contains a great deal of information not to be found elsewhere, and which moreover makes fascinating reading. It is certain to remain the standard work with regard to this particular branch of scientific history.
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