August 1, 2019
112 Years Later
Originally published April 20, 2010
image by me
I have various classic Moon authors listed as "wants" on different online book searches. A few weeks ago I was surprised and delighted when Krieger's Mond Atlas popped up - and doubly surprised (and a little disappointed) - when I discovered that it was a new reprint, rather than the 1898 original. Of course, I probably couldn't afford the original so thanks for reprints. This is a nicely bound book with an attractive cover, but the 20 pages of text and 28 plates look like they were copied from a less than perfect original. Everything is perfectly legible but lacks the extreme crispness expected of Germanic publications. Krieger planned to create a 12 ft wide map of the Moon, based on huge enlargements of photos that he added fine detail to - especially rilles - from his observations with a 10.6" refractor in the dome on top of his very nice house shown in the frontispiece photo. Krieger died young so his map was another unrealized lunar dream, but he did add 50 new names, mostly for inconspicuous features such as Auwers, Elger, and Klein. For an obsessive collector it is an unexpected addition to the library.
Chuck Wood
Technical Details
Buy it here for $113 (but it's 49 pages, not 80 as claimed).
Related Links
Do you recognize the cover crater? Rükl plate 58
All of the plates are avilable here and the text is here.
Obituary
Yesterday's LPOD: Three of a Kind
Tomorrow's LPOD: Every One a Winner
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