Moon

Not merely one more celebration of Armstrong and company in Apollo 11, this book is divided into three roughly equal interspersed sets of spreads, on Moon Landing, Moon Facts and Moonstruck. Moon Landing indeed covers the 1969 Apollo trip, with a good deal about the run-up to that achievement. Moon Facts gives the astronomical data, from ancient explanations, via Copernicus and Galileo, to modern views about the origin of the Moon. Moonstruck is an unusual collection, including Moon gods and goddesses, Moon poems, songs and stories, Moon movies and Moon music, horoscopes and werewolves.

The author’s Introduction maintains that the Apollo trip was ‘the most tremendous enterprise ever undertaken by the human race’. And there are some odd juxtapositions; for example a Moon Facts spread which on the left page lists four alternative scientific theories of the origin of the Moon and on the right offers ‘a medieval Bible illustration of God creating the Moon’. There are a Moon Info spread, a Moon Dates spread, Glossary, Index, and lists of Moon websites and of places to visit.