I SEE THE MOON, THE MOON SEES ME

The latest in my collection of space books is a reproduction of the work of amateur astronomer Hugh Percival Wilkins, who used a 300inch telescope to sketch the lunar surface from his back garden, using the sketches to create some of the most detailed maps of the lunar surface at the time. 

His first edition was released to critical acclaim in 1946, but he continued to update and revise the map until the third edition in 1953. His map was considered the the best available for astronomers and was even bought by NASA to be used as reference for the Apollo missions and for use with the first clear photographs returned by American and Russian probes. Although his maps were criticised for being overcrowded and complex, they are amazingly accurate.

An example of two sections of the map showing the area around the crater Copernicus.

Wilkins also sketched and drew sections of landscape and individual craters by hand from his observations. The final map was a huge 100 inch diameter diagram, comprised of 25 individual sections, which when laid out covered the entire disk of the visible surface. After his death, just 9 years before the moon landing, the map was acquired by the Royal Observatory museum in Greenwich.

Lunar Atlas representation of Kepler Crater

Lunar Orbiter Photograph of Kepler

Wilkins sketch of the shadow on Kepler Crater 

Comparison of the area around Alphonsus Crater and Wilkins observational sketches of the dark area within Alphonsus, with notes regarding additional features for which he was often criticised.

Sea of Tranquility as it appears in the book

Lunar Astronautical Chart of the area around Julius Caesar crater and Sea of Tranquility

I order to check the veracity of Wilkins maps, I found the area showing part of the Sea of Tranquility, where the first moon landing took place and referenced it against the Lunar Atlas and a shot taken by the Lunar Orbiter missions.

Wilkins map inverted

Consolidated Lunar Atlas Photograph

It took a little time to identify the area in Wilkins book, but eventually I realised that the relevant map area was upside down!

Despite the orientation of the map in the book, overlaying it onto accurate astronomical charts show a remarkable level of accuracy for a hand drawn map.

Some of the features in Wilkins map do appear slightly out of position, but the map does not take into account the curvature of the lunar globe, as seen in the last photograph, so some distortion and some aberration due to the lens of the telescope must be allowed for.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Growing up, I paid frequent visits to the local library, as well as a much smaller one in school and regularly combed the shelves for any interesting space books. The majority were dry, text heavy volumes, but now and again, I would come across a book which knew its intended audience and catered for it with interesting articles intended for a younger audience and a range of exciting images to catch the eye. Martin L Keen published 'Rockets, Missiles and Spacecraft' under the Odhams imprint, who were responsible for a lot of younger readers books in the sixties. 

The cover shows a painting by renowned artist Robert McCall, who was employed to visualise may NASA projects.

It fell in the period just prior to the Apollo Moon Landing era, when excitement and anticipation were high and featured some early prototype designs for the apollo program. At the time, I assumed they would be the designs of the vehicles which would land on the moon and very much like the space shuttle program some decades later, I was very disappointed with the actual craft!

The book shows a photograph of something which is clearly a model from one of the proposals submitted to NASA by the several engineering companies who applied for the contract, possibly Bell Aerospace.

Other interesting illustrations include the Dyna Soar glider, atop a modified Titan rocket launcher, with large stabilising fins and some excellent artwork relating to the Gemini programme. Besides good photo coverage, Keen also includes some illustrative work, with drawings and illustrations of various rockets and missiles. These vary in style and quality, but one in particular always made me quite curious. this was a drawing of an air to surface missile called the Army 'Rascal' and the drawing seemed to represent a childs toy aircraft, rather than a missile. the accompanying drawings are fairly accurate and recognisable, but the Rascal bears no relation to the actual missile, as seen below.

The Rascal was a large supersonic missile launched from a modified B52 Bomber. It was in use until 1958, when it was decomissioned.

At the time of publication, accurate information on the Apollo project was clearly being kept under wraps, as the Saturn launch vehicle for the mission is shown at a very early conceptual stage. It is also accompanied by the projected heavy lift vehicle Nova, which was intended to be many time larger and be used to transport cargo to the moon.

My favourite sections of all space books is always the future developments, or 'beyond the moon' chapters, which look ahead to possible interplanetary missions, or exotic fuel craft. This book is no exception and has designs for ion powered, nuclear fuelled craft. 

One thing which always intrigued me about this particular section was the inclusion of a series of probes designed to explore Mars, with a view to discovering life. A trio of similar designs are shown, each shaped like a rocket nose cone. The first one is Project Gulliver - named after Jonathan Swifts famous explorer, who in the book 'Gullivers Travels' famously predicted the presence of two moons orbiting Mars and came surprisingly close to guessing their orbital trajectory. The Gulliver probe was intended to land on the planets surface and shoot out tethered projectiles on to the surface, with cables coated in a sticky film. these would then be retracted, drawing in soil and dust samples for analysis.

Two similar probes, he Multivator and Wolf Trap, used similar devices to test for the presence of life. Unfortunately, none of the designs were ever approved and the Viking probes were eventually dispatched to Mars, but failed to identify any organic compounds.

All in all a great book and one of the rare occasions when i have bought two copies, as the first one I had was a little shelf worn, but the quality justified finding a second good copy for the shelf. having the older copy enabled me to scan the pages, too - rather than relying on photographing  a spread.