arte de la Lune Dressee Par L’Abee Th. Moreux
Date estimated. "This wonderful chromolithograph by famous author and astronomer Theophile Moreaux offers an intricate and attractive look at a pristine lunar landscape, with its recognizable features (e.g. the Sea of Tranquility and the Ocean of Storms), along with lesser known elevations and...
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| Format: | Map |
| Language: | unknown |
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E. Girard
1949
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| Online Access: | https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~342492~90110629 https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/199/15114002.jpg |
| Summary: | Date estimated. "This wonderful chromolithograph by famous author and astronomer Theophile Moreaux offers an intricate and attractive look at a pristine lunar landscape, with its recognizable features (e.g. the Sea of Tranquility and the Ocean of Storms), along with lesser known elevations and depressions. These features are shown in great detail, with topographic lines outlining major summits and impact craters. That only one of the moon’s hemispheres is depicted is due to the fact that only one hemisphere is visible from Earth. The reason for this phenomenon, which has given name to the concept ‘the dark side of the moon,’ is that the moon rotates on its axis at the same speed that it orbits Earth. Prior to space flight, it was consequently only the visible 59% of the moon that had been systematically mapped and plotted. The map offered here is almost intuitive, inviting the viewer to really study it in order to understand distinction and delineation. Features such as the Ocean of Storms – the large dark depression occupying about a third of the moon’s visible surface – are not simply delineated on this map, they are associated and linked with other lunar features. This is achieved by means of a simple yellow and light blue color coding (yellow for elevation, blue for depression) and the inclusion of precisely drawn topography, an elegant solution that functions as a visual aid. The attentive viewer will note certain compositional oddities, such as the fact that the north and south pole have been inverted, but that this is not the case for east and west. Polar regions on the moon are defined as where the axial rotation meets the surface. Why Moreaux decided to depict the moon in this way is somewhat of a mystery. When viewed from Earth, the moon appears at varying angles, depending on where on the planet this observation occurs. However, one would have to view the moon from the South Pole in order for it to appear in the sky in this manner. Being compiled in this way means that at the top of the chart we ... |
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