<<

THE IN SIX FOLD LORE ING EXP MAP ET‘S S L AS OF LUNA ATL R VENTURES ATLAS OF AD LUNAR ADVENTURES LET‘S EXPLORE THE MOON EUROPE IN SIX FOLDING MAPS

Written by Pavel Gabzdyl Illustrated by Tomáš Tůma

Look at the sky. What do you see? That’s In the atlas you’ll find: right, the large, round, pale head of the Moon. • 6 foldout maps with the Moon When full, it shines in all directions. From time and rockets immemorial, this silvery pilgrim on high has • interesting facts about exploration teased and fascinated humanity. Dreamers, of the Moon romantics, adventurers and hard-headed • people on the Moon scientists have all longed to learn its secrets. • four supplementary booklets with It’s the same with you, isn’t it? So, what are more inforamtion about Moon and you waiting for? Climb aboard! Our great travelling to the Moon expedition to the cosmos is about to begin! On • the future on the Moon six foldout maps, travel the length and breadth of the Moon. In six chapters, learn about the first astronauts, the first travellers to the Moon, LEARN AND HAVE FUN the first space shuttles and even today’s state- THE NEAR AND FA R SIDES OF T HE M of-the-art space vehicles. So put on your OON THE MOON IS GETTING O U R FURTHER AWAY MOON'S LIFE can measure the distance from to the STORY Moon with great accuracy. This is how we know that the spacesuit, fasten your seatbelt and three… Moon is getting further away from us. But it won’t escape MONTES APENNINUSE us – it is moving away by only MOUNTAINS ON THE MOON The Moon’s ‘Apennine Mountains’ are 600 kilometres Humans got their first look at about 3.8 centimetres a . If you were to walk about the Moon, long. They are part of an enormous crater that the only in That’s about the speed at which you would come across isolated originated on the Moon around 3,800,000,000 October 1959, when the Soviet your nails grow. mountains and extensive mountain ago, when an asteroid struck its surface. Later, this vast probe Luna 3 flew across it. The ranges. Some of these mountains crater was flooded with dark , and first shots of the far side of the two… one… we have LIFT-O-O-FF-FF! are almost 5 km higher than their (the Sea of Rains) was formed. Moon proved very surprising surroundings. for scientists: they discovered that there are hardly any maria (moon seas) on it. LUNAR VOLCANOES OCEAN OF STORMS As well as having lots of craters, the surface The largest mare (dark area) on of the Moon has several volcanoes. But the surface of the Moon is called these are long extinct and look more (Ocean of like insignificant bulges than volcanoes. Storms). Compared with the oceans Almost all these volcanoes are on the near of Earth, the Ocean of Storms is side of the Moon. pretty small. It is about the same size booklets as Greenland. with additional

information M O O N S NORTH POLE OF OTHER Do you know a really cold place? How about the north pole of the Moon? In craters that the ’s rays never reach, the temperature can be as low as -248 degrees Celsius. NORTH Not even very distant Pluto is POLE as cold as that! HOW THE MOON ORIGINATED Scientists have striven to explain The crater Aristarchus is one of the the origination of the WARNING: CHOCKING HAZARD brightest places anywhere on the Moon for many years. The ONE PAGE ATLAS OF LUNAR ADVENTURES Moon. Nearby, there are volcanoes latest findings suggest that it It takes the Moon the same that used to spew lava. It contains originated following an enormous This crater is named for , collision between at least one celestial time to Earth as it does a 160-kilometre-long bed where once Small parts. Not suitable for children an important Danish . body and Earth. to rotate on its own axis. It a river of glowing lava ran. It originated about one hundred takes Earth 24 hours to rotate million years ago, making it one on its own axis, the Moon far under 36 . of the youngest of the great longer. This means that we craters on the Moon. Even through TSIOLKOVSKIYI only ever see one half-sphere a small , we can see Maybe the most striking crater of the Moon, which we refer distinctly how rays of light bounce on the far side of the Moon is to as its near side. off it to all sides. , named for a leading Russian rocket scientist. The crater is filled with solidified lava, COPERNICUS which explains why it catches One of the most striking craters your eye when you see a photo on the is of the far side of the Moon. Copernicus, named for the famous Polish astronomer. The crater itself is about 100 kilometres in diameter. THE BIGGEST HOLE Peaks rise from within the crater to The Moon’s largest crater is heights of over one kilometre. 2500 kilometres in diameter – meaning that it accounts for almost two thirds of the diameter of the whole Moon! But as this huge hole (it’s only 13 kilometres deep, by the way) is on the far side of the Moon, from Earth we never get to see it. This mare – one of very few on the far side of the Moon – was named by Russian scientists for Russia’s capital. As the name Mare Moscoviense was approved by the International Astronomical Union, we find it today on maps of the Moon.

EAN

B4U PUBLISHING

www.b4upublishing.com LUNAR T When, once in a while, the Moon steps into ASES OF HE MOO Earth’s shadow, a great spectacle ensues which PH N we call a . The most beautiful part of this phenomenon comes before the total eclipse, however: during a partial eclipse, Earth’s shadow gradually nibbles away at the disc of the Moon. The total eclipse occurs when the Moon is fully covered by Earth’s shadow; at this moment, what little we see of the Moon is reddish or brownish. Planetshine is the dim illumination visible on the part of the Moon not lit by the Sun. It is produced by reflected on the Moon from Earth. The clarity of the planetshine is mainly determined by the phase the Moon is in: the thinner the Moon, the more noticeable the planetshine because the greater the light reflected on the Moon from Earth.

NIGHT AND ON THE MOON Days and on the Moon really drag on. Whereas Earth turns around its own axis with respect to the Sun in about 24 hours, it takes the Moon about 29 days to do the same. This means that one lunar night lasts about 14 Earth days (c. 354 hours).

ORBIT OF THE MOON The Moon Earth in about 27 days. But to complete its phase cycle, our celestial GALILEO GALILEI neighbour needs about two The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, an extremely clever man, lived four days longer than that. How hundred years ago. He was among the first to have the idea of pointing ECLIPSE GLASSES PERIOD OF THE quickly must the Moon orbit a telescope at the Moon. And he was When from time to time the Moon The period of the full moon is really just Earth to manage it in 27 days? delighted by what he saw on the face of covers the Sun, a partial eclipse of the a brief moment, which we can calculate It’s quite a rush – it covers our closest neighbour in the cosmos. He Sun occurs. It is very dangerous to look precisely, to a matter of . You can around a kilometre in a , discovered that there are mountains and at the Sun without protection. If you find out when this moment is by looking at so 3,600 kilometres in an hour. continents on the Moon, just as there are do, you may damage your eyesight. a or searching the internet. But That’s the speed of today’s on Earth. He made careful notes on and So, to a partial eclipse people by looking at the Moon with the naked fastest fighter planes. drawings of everything he saw through wear special glasses with very eye, it is very difficult to estimate his telescope. But at that time, no one dark lenses. the exact time of the full moon. believed his claims. Two days before and two days after the full moon, the Moon looks round. HUNT If at the time of the the Sun, the I’m sure you’ve seen a thin, crescent moon. But did you Moon and Earth come into exact alignment, know that the thinner the Moon is, the more difficult one of the most spectacular of all it is to spot in the sky? The brightness of a very thin astronomical phenomena occurs – a total crescent is low. Besides, it is closer in the sky to the Sun, eclipse of the Sun. During a total eclipse, which easily outshines it. Some astronomers like to the sky becomes so dark that the stars shine compete for who can spot the thinnest crescent. This CYCLE bright and an amazing silvery-blue aura crescent hunt requires Together with the alternation of called a corona appears around our daystar. the right telescope day and night, the rotation of the Uncomprehending, nature prepares to or binoculars, very forms of the Moon was one of the sleep, and flowers close. The temperature good eyesight, first regularly repeating events in drops. In windy conditions, the wind, too, a good vantage the sky that people noticed. Our drops during the eclipse. It is all over in point, clean celestial neighbour goes through all a few , when the Moon moves out air, plenty of its phases in the course of the lunar of alignment with the Sun. experience and phase cycle, which takes 29.5 days. a healthy dose of luck.

NEW MOON WAXING CRESCENT FIRST QUARTER WAXING GIBBOUS FULL MOON WANING GIBBOUS LAST QUARTER WANING CRESCENT The first phase of the lunar The further the Moon The waxing (ageing) I’m sure you’ve noticed About 14 days after the When the period of the full When we see a half-moon About 25 days after the cycle is the new moon. moves away from the Sun, crescent moon sets a little that sometimes the Moon’s new moon, the hemisphere moon is over, the right-hand in the shape of a ‘C’, the new moon, all that remains At this point, the Moon the more we see of its later each day. One shape is not that of a we see is fully illuminated. edge of the Moon’s disc Moon has entered its of the half-moon is a thin is between Earth and the illuminated hemisphere. on from the new moon, we crescent, circle or quarter This is the full moon – and is gradually nibbled away. last quarter. At this time, crescent adorning the Sun. As the illuminated A few days after the new see it as a half-moon in a – in fact, it appears to bulge. it usually appears as soon Now we say that the Moon the Moon rises around eastern horizon before hemisphere of our nearest moon, the Moon that ‘D’ shape. We refer to this We see this shape in the as the Sun sets. The period is waning. It rises ever later midnight and reaches the daybreak. It rises a little neighbour is now facing appears over the western phase of the Moon as the course of the Moon’s cycle of the full moon receives and sets only after the Sun western horizon in , later each day and soon away from Earth, when horizon is in the form first quarter. And, of course, twice – first, after the first much more attention than rises. It has a bulging shape around midday. This means disappears in the glare of viewed from our , it of a thin crescent, and as it passes through the quarter (when the Moon the other lunar phases. as it does before the full that it is clearly visible in the rising Sun. At this time, is difficult to see with the it is getting larger. We first quarter, our celestial is waxing); then, after the When full, the Moon is at its moon, but this time from day-time, too. a beautiful planetshine naked eye. When the new determine the Moon’s age neighbour continues to full moon, when the Moon brightest, shining all night. the left, not the right. supplementing the moon is over, the Moon by the number of days wax (grow). is waning. unilluminated part of the moves eastwards, away from that have elapsed since the Moon is a common sight. the Sun. new moon. HE MOON DRAWINGS OF ISAAC NEWTON T THE MOON The story goes that English physicist Isaac Newton HUMANKI As the stargazer was sitting in a garden one day when an apple AND ND Galileo Galilei was fell on his head. This incident resulted in his drawing the Moon, he discovery of . Later, Newton saw what appeared to be worked out three laws that huge circular mountain ranges describe everything we need Humans have been fascinated by the Moon since between the light and the dark. to know about how all kinds of time immemorial. Some like it, some fear it, some Galileo had no idea how these things move. These laws explain strange mountain ranges could why apples fall to Earth, why the study it their whole life long. In the time before have originated. Today we know Moon orbits Earth, and what fire was discovered, our nearest neighbour in CRATERS OF THE MOON Using the first , scientists that he was looking at huge craters. speed we need to travel at to space made it easier for our ancestors to hunt and established that there are many such reach the Moon. travel at night. Regular changes in its phases once circular mountain ranges on the Moon, served reliably as a celestial calendar. The Moon is and they started to call them craters. still a great source of inspiration for poets, painters As many of them were remarkably like and composers. Often, however, it has been craters on Earth, some scientists assumed that our nearest neighbour has a much reached the conclusion that they were TELESCOPE greater influence on human life than is actually formed by great volcanic explosions. Later, A telescope is a cool thing! Invented by the Dutch in however, astronomers determined that the early 17th century, it is an instrument with a set of the case. In Ancient Egypt, for instance, there almost all the Moon’s craters were made by glass lenses and mirrors that allow us to see distant were people who believed huge cosmic rocks striking its surface. objects as though they were much closer to us. that the Moon ate a pig Stargazers soon began to use telescopes every two . to observe the stars and planets. The first telescopes were quite small and weighed only a few kilograms, whereas the largest ones of today are colossal and weigh hundreds MOON LEGENDS of tons. Many myths and legends tell us that the dark spots on the Moon are scars sustained in various Humans first used changes in the battles and skirmishes. Mexican legends phases of the Moon as a means of claim that the Moon’s face was scratched measuring time a long, long time SMALL MOON by a rabbit, Peruvians believed that it was ago, perhaps even in the Bronze The Moon isn’t as large as it may appear to mutilated by a , in Argentina it was said Age. But there is one big drawback MOON MADE OF CHEESE us from Earth at first sight; if you hold out that the marks had been made by the to a lunar calendar: it is based on Once upon a time, some people believed that the your hand in front of you, you’ll find that claws of a jaguar, while certain ancestors changes in the seasons, which are dependent on Moon was made of cheese. This crazy notion you can cover the Moon with your little of the Romanians believed that someone Earth’s orbiting of the Sun. Another drawback is that even appears in certain myths and fairy finger, no problem, even when the Moon had thrown a cowpat at it. It is still if we count calendar months by the time it takes tales. It stems from the similarity in is full. Incidentally, the Sun looks the same common for the Moon to be imagined as Earth’s little companion to switch through all its appearance between a round cake of size as the Moon in Earth’s sky – although a human face – indeed, this has become phases, the length of each will vary. For this cheese and the Moon, whose craters it’s actually 400 times bigger. a symbol of the Moon on . reason, people stopped using lunar calendars. remind us of the holes in Emmental. THE MOON IN SIX FOLD LORE ING EXP MAP ET‘S S L AS OF LUNA ATL R VENTURES ATLAS OF AD LUNAR ADVENTURES LET‘S EXPLORE THE MOON EUROPE IN SIX FOLDING MAPS

Written by Pavel Gabzdyl Illustrated by Tomáš Tůma

Look at the . What do you see? That’s In the atlas you’ll find: right, the large, round, pale head of the Moon. • 6 foldout maps with the Moon When full, it shines in all directions. From time and rockets immemorial, this silvery pilgrim on high has • interesting facts about exploration teased and fascinated humanity. Dreamers, of the Moon romantics, adventurers and hard-headed • people on the Moon scientists have all longed to learn its secrets. • four supplementary booklets with It’s the same with you, isn’t it? So, what are more inforamtion about Moon and you waiting for? Climb aboard! Our great travelling to the Moon expedition to the cosmos is about to begin! On • the future on the Moon six foldout maps, travel the length and breadth of the Moon. In six chapters, learn about the first astronauts, the first travellers to the Moon, LEARN AND HAVE FUN the first space shuttles and even today’s state- THE NEAR AND FA R SIDES OF T HE M of-the-art space vehicles. So put on your OON THE MOON IS GETTING O U R FURTHER AWAY MOON'S LIFE Astronomers can measure the distance from Earth to the STORY Moon with great accuracy. This is how we know that the spacesuit, fasten your seatbelt and three… Moon is getting further away from us. But it won’t escape MONTES APENNINUSE LUNA 3 us – it is moving away by only MOUNTAINS ON THE MOON The Moon’s ‘Apennine Mountains’ are 600 kilometres Humans got their first look at about 3.8 centimetres a year. If you were to walk about the Moon, long. They are part of an enormous crater that the far side of the Moon only in That’s about the speed at which you would come across isolated originated on the Moon around 3,800,000,000 years October 1959, when the Soviet your nails grow. mountains and extensive mountain ago, when an asteroid struck its surface. Later, this vast probe Luna 3 flew across it. The ranges. Some of these mountains crater was flooded with dark lava, and Mare Imbrium first shots of the far side of the two… one… we have LIFT-O-O-FF-FF! are almost 5 km higher than their (the Sea of Rains) was formed. Moon proved very surprising surroundings. for scientists: they discovered that there are hardly any maria (moon seas) on it. LUNAR VOLCANOES OCEAN OF STORMS As well as having lots of craters, the surface The largest mare (dark area) on of the Moon has several volcanoes. But the surface of the Moon is called these are long extinct and look more Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of like insignificant bulges than volcanoes. Storms). Compared with the oceans Almost all these volcanoes are on the near of Earth, the Ocean of Storms is side of the Moon. pretty small. It is about the same size booklets as Greenland. with additional

information M O O N S NORTH POLE OF OTHER Do you know a really cold place? How PLANETS about the north pole of the Moon? In craters that the sun’s rays never reach, the temperature can be as low as -248 degrees Celsius. NORTH Not even very distant Pluto is POLE as cold as that! HOW THE MOON ORIGINATED Scientists have ARISTARCHUS striven to explain The crater Aristarchus is one of the the origination of the WARNING: CHOCKING HAZARD brightest places anywhere on the Moon for many years. The ONE PAGE ATLAS OF LUNAR ADVENTURES Moon. Nearby, there are volcanoes latest findings suggest that it TYCHO It takes the Moon the same that used to spew lava. It contains originated following an enormous This crater is named for Tycho Brahe, collision between at least one celestial time to orbit Earth as it does a 160-kilometre-long bed where once Small parts. Not suitable for children an important Danish astronomer. body and Earth. to rotate on its own axis. It a river of glowing lava ran. It originated about one hundred takes Earth 24 hours to rotate million years ago, making it one on its own axis, the Moon far under 36 months. of the youngest of the great longer. This means that we craters on the Moon. Even through TSIOLKOVSKIYI only ever see one half-sphere a small telescope, we can see Maybe the most striking crater of the Moon, which we refer distinctly how rays of light bounce on the far side of the Moon is to as its near side. off it to all sides. Tsiolkovskiy, named for a leading Russian rocket scientist. The crater is filled with solidified lava, COPERNICUS which explains why it catches One of the most striking craters your eye when you see a photo on the near side of the Moon is of the far side of the Moon. Copernicus, named for the famous Polish astronomer. The crater itself is about 100 kilometres in diameter. THE BIGGEST HOLE Peaks rise from within the crater to The Moon’s largest crater is heights of over one kilometre. 2500 kilometres in diameter – meaning that it accounts for almost two thirds of the diameter of the whole Moon! But as this huge hole (it’s only 13 kilometres deep, by the way) is on the far side of the Moon, from Earth we never MARE MOSCOVIENSE get to see it. This mare – one of very few on the far side of the Moon – was named by Russian scientists for Russia’s capital. As the name Mare Moscoviense was approved by the International Astronomical Union, we find it today on maps of the Moon.

EAN

B4U PUBLISHING

www.b4upublishing.com