Written by the Royal Observatory’s leading astronomers and moon experts, this landmark work explores man’s fascination with our only natural satellite.

Learn how the moon influences life on earth, how nature and even human behaviour patterns are all subject to this heavenly body.

Illustrated with 250 colour and black and white photographs this book is a treasure trove for all amateur and professional Moon watchers.

Our fascination with the Moon is intimately bound up in the development of human culture and the progress of human civilisation. By studying and exploring the Moon we inevitably come to understand more about ourselves, as a species, as a culture and as individuals. These ideas are crystallised in the following quotes, which themselves encapsulate the impact of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, and the broader influence of the Moon on human science and culture:

“from the moment the first flint was flaked this landing was merely a matter of time” – ‘Moon Landing’, W. H. Auden

“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” – William Anders, NASA Astronaut, Apollo 8