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William Sheehan
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Epic Moon: A History of Lunar Exploration in the Age of the Telescope Hardcover – January 1, 2001

by William P. Sheehan (Author), Thomas A. Dobbins (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
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The Moon has always been one of the most obvious and in some ways the most enticing of astronomical objects - even from early times, it was Queen of the Night, and the naked eye sees more detail than even the largest telescopes reveal on Mars. There is growing evidence of a return of amateur observers to the Moon as an object worthy of their attention. It is the only alien world open to geological prospecting from the eyepieces of the backyard telescope.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    363 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Willmann-Bell
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0943396700
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0943396705
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Willmann-Bell (January 1, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 363 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0943396700
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0943396705
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 9 ratings

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William Sheehan

William Sheehan

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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
9 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Walter S.
5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for anyone interested in the history of Lunar observation.
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
A classic and a must have for every serious Lunar observer. The book is impecably researched and written.
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Thomas M. Nathe
5.0 out of 5 stars Get a used book, but do get the book, if you like looking at the Moon.
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great learning about the history of earth based lunar observing, and the people hind the work.
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R. E. Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic!
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
A classic! Lots of far flung historical information brought together in one source.
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ERIC RACHUT M.D.
3.0 out of 5 stars COMPREHENSIVE
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019
This is a comprehensive - almost overwhelmingly so - history of lunar observation, written by two experienced amateur astronomers. It is not simply a compilation of facts, but also contains the central theme of the Moon's surface as a "...realm of inconceivable changelessness and paralysis...." despite "...the compelling illusion of change" (authors' preface). This statement should raise an alarm bell - there is very little in science that is changeless - and certainly today's interpretation should always be subject to revision. As will be seen, this stated goal gets the authors into some trouble with Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP's, see below).

Amazingly, the book contains a scant amount of incorrect data. The assertion that Aristarchus is ". . .the brightest feature on the lunar surface. . ." is not true; the brightest feature is the crater Stevinus A and the second brightest, the crater Proclus (Gary Seronik, in the Canadian journal Sky News, Jan-Feb 2015, pp 42-43). Astronomer Johann Hieronymus Schroeter has his middle name misspelled as "Hieronymous" (the latter is not a classical spelling; Richard Baum's "The Haunted Observatory" includes a photograph of his tombstone with the right name). Truly disappointing, however, is the nasty treatment given Johann Hevelius, a seventeenth century German-Polish amateur astronomer of Danzig, during the early telescopic era when the morphologic features of the Moon were being named by competing religious confessions. Hevelius was one of the last and greatest naked-eye observers, who, as Edmond Halley found, could make without optical aid a celestial measurement of 27 arc-seconds; he was also one of the greatest users of the incredibly cumbersome aerial telescopes. He produced both a general astronomical and a selenographic atlas (creating most of the engravings himself) and therein giving modern-day nomenclature to several features (mostly mountain ranges) on the Moon; he devised several constellations, seven of which are among today's eighty-eight. In this time of confessional warfare, he managed, as a German-speaking Lutheran, to have the support of the Polish king, Jan III Sobieski and the French king, Louis XIV, both Catholics, as well as to be elected to the Royal Society, where a testimonial letter commended him for his "kindness and candor." (Incidentally, he did learn Polish to accommodate to his surroundings). In the midst of this, his life was subject to many personal and professional tragedies. Yet Epic Moon accuses him of egotism and takes satisfaction in the loss or misuse of the copper plates for the moon atlas! A frontispiece of the lunar atlas is described - but not illustrated - to show this purported self-aggrandizement. One might refer instead to the frontispiece, by C de la Haye, of Hevelius' general astronomical atlas, shown in Joseph Ashbrook's charming anecdotal work, The Astronomical Scrapbook, and in volume 6 of Kanipe and Webb's Annals of the Deep Sky; in this engraving, Hevelius is shown humbly presenting his atlas to a panel of famous astronomers. Conversely, Riccioli, an Italian Jesuit, who in the end did give the names to most currently recognized features on the Moon, rather immodestly named one crater after himself; Epic Moon does not fault him for this! The distinct impression given is that the authors - or more likely one of the authors - is not content to let the confessional contest rest. A second aspect of Epic Moon which is bothersome is its dismissal of Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP's), an approach in line with its determined view of the Moon as changeless. These colored flashes have been visualized by such diverse observers as the peerless William Herschel in the 1780's, and by Apollo 11 in 1969; radon, perhaps outgassed and one basis for the flashes, was detected spectrographically by Apollo 15 and by a robotic lunar orbiter. In addition, observation of occasional meteoritic strikes should logically be expected on the Moon - they occur continually on the Earth; apparent lunar meteoritic flashes have indeed been photographed and are another potential source for TLP's. Much is available online about these findings and about the solid likelihood that Transient Lunar Phenomena do exist.

In sum, this book is the final word in its field, the history of lunar observation. It belongs on the bookshelf of every dedicated observer of the Moon, but with the understanding that, unlike Ashbrook, it cannot easily be sampled for pure enjoyment, and it does have a rather inflexible agenda, both astronomical and personal, which leads it awry in one or two places.
2 people found this helpful
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Alan R
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Lunar reference
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015
Well Researched and Documented. Enough illustration to keep the reader engaged. A must for Lunar observers.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Story of Man's Fascination with the Moon
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2001
The authors are to be commended on weaving together the lives and observations of three centuries of those people who dedicated great amounts of time and effort into studying our nearest celestial neighbor with the telescope. Interesting. exciting and unique is how I would sum up the telling of this facet of the history of Astronomy. Beginning with Galileo's first telescopic observations and culminating with Man's arrival on the moon this book tells it all. I was most impressed with the incredible amount of work that went into the mapping of the moon in ever increasing detail as telescopes became better and better. Enjoying the sketching of lunar formations at the eyepiece myself I can appreciate the size of the task of drawing the entire visible face of the moon as seen through a telescope. Yet this was done on several different levels of perfection by a very few observers and was the only record available before the invention of lunar photography came along. Not only is this a great history of lunar observation, but also tells the story of the history of the telescope. The wealth of pictures of the early telescopes is a delight in itself and adds a great deal to the text. I would most certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in the moon, or the history of astronomy. A well done to the authors. One of the authors is a psychiatrist and I assume it was his input which resulted in the emotions and thought processes of the characters in the book seeping out between the lines and made the book all the more enjoyable.It was also obvious that both authors are observers themselves.
9 people found this helpful
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Francisco J. Bellido
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book. A must for lunar observers.
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2004
I have enjoyed Sheehan's book from the first to the last page. The book includes images from the most prominent lunar atlases ever edited and a nice description of every map and its circumstances.
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