The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Moon -- Lunar References

Atlas of the Moon by Antonin Rukl

This is the standard moon atlas, against which all others must be judged. The drawings are highly detailed and include most features visible to a 5" scope under normal seeing conditions. Bonus material includes libration charts, a chart of landing sites for US and soviet lunar missions, and a modest collection of excellent photos.

I've oriented the Hitchhiker's Guide around pages in Rukl's atlas, because the first thing I noticed when I started observing the moon was that it was the one reference book that everybody else had (and when I finally bought it, I found out why).

Unfortunately it's out of print. Sky Publishing bought the rights from the previous publisher, Kalmbach, quite a few years ago; they've been promising it "next season" or "in a few months" ever since then. Pestering them about it couldn't hurt -- it's probably good to remind them that people want to see this book back in print.

A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings by Harold Hill

I love this book. It isn't comprehensive and doesn't pretend to be an atlas or a reference work. What it is is a collection of finely detailed sketches of lunar features at their most interesting lighting, by one of the world's best lunar artists. Sometimes when I see something unusual on the moon created by a rare lighting condition, and I go to the usual reference works to find out what it is I've seen, and I can't find it anywhere, it'll turn up in this book. Hill has an eye for the unusual and the beautiful. Unfortunately this book is somewhat expensive, but it's a treat for those willing to spend the money.

The Once And Future Moon by Paul A. Spudis

This excellent book starts with an overview of the history of lunar observation and research, then follows that up with a wonderfully readable discussion of what we know about lunar science.

Exploring the Moon Through Binoculars and Small Telescopes by Ernest H Cherrington

A nice introductory book. It follows the moon through each day of a lunation, describing interesting features visible on that day. Readable and fun. The downside is that it's best suited for tripod-mounted binoculars and very small telescopes: anyone using an instrument larger than a short-tube 80 will rapidly become curious about finer features not mentioned in the book.

APOLLO OVER THE MOON: A VIEW FROM ORBIT

It isn't clear whether this is an actual physical book, or just a web site. In any case, it looks like it has a wonderful collection of close-up photos of moon phenomena taken from various Apollo missions.

Apollo Over the Moon: A View From Orbit, by Harold Masursky, G.W. Colton, and Farouk El Baz, SP-362

This book is is basically a compilation of Metric and Panoramic camera shots on the Apollo-H missions. NASA brass were hoping someone would use them for lunar mapping, but the limitation of equatorial coverage and the death, for all practical purposes, of lunar mapping for twenty years after Apollo, means the idea didn't work out.

Cool book; often runs about $150 (I've seen copies for more, but they are rip-offs).