EX LIBRIS WOTANICUS

 Well, as Mars begins to move out of conjunction with Earth and we dip back behind the Sun, its time to bring my command of the blog to a close and let Woodsy back in the airlock. With this in mind, I'd like to look over some of the book gems that I have uncovered over the last month, as the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing approached. As space history doesn't seem to get anyone fired up anymore, books are available comparatively cheaply from various vendors on the web and although for the most part, this involves buying blind, I have managed to discover a few little crackers.

NASA has a very long and proud history and is especially good at recording and celebrating its achievements. To this end, there is an established art programme, involving artists such as Norman Rockwell and Robert McCall which records both major events and the day to day environment around NASA itself. 'Visions of Space'  is a collection of sketches, paintings and photographs from the NASA Art programme, showing conceptual artwork, landscapes and celebratory murals from the last 20 years.

 Published in the year I was born, 'Space Travel' is a little beauty of a book, full of rare and unusual photographs of the nascent German rocket groups with an 18 year old Werner Von Braun and images of the later V Weapon programme, coverage of Robert Hutchins Goddard and his early rocketry and pictures of the Soviet satellite development. The book then goes on to cover the US and Russian space programme in more detail, with the lead up through Mercury and Gemini towards Apollo. Full of rare and unusual photographs, it captures the excitement and wonder of the sixties space race beautifully.

 Patrick Moore is a British household name in astronomy circles and was a go-to for news coverage of the space programme inthe sixties. To this end, he wrote dozens of books including a large format volume called the 'Moon Flight Atlas'. Two editions exist, like its companion volume 'Challenge of the Stars', which were updated and expanded. This version was updated to include the later Apollo missions, including the ill fated 13, which should feature prominently on the dust jacket. For some reason, this has been one of the hardest books to get and this represents the third time I have actually bought it, even though it arrived without the dust jacket as advertised, the first one was lost in the post, the second one had the wrong book delivered but finally, this copy arrived. A nice pictorial volume with clear diagrams and lots of the then 'new' mission photography from Apollo. Plus plenty of clear and concise lunar maps.

 Andrew Chaykin always provides a good quality read and his 'Air and Space' volume delivers a wonderful insight into the Smithsonian Museum collections. As well as full page spreads of photographs of the exhibits in situ, it also covers background info and stories about the aircraft and rockets in thorough detail.

 I do enjoy reading about the Soviet space programme, especially as during the sixties, information was so scarce. This book was published just prior to the glasnost era of transparency and is somewhat coloured by the hand of propaganda and speculation, but is nevertheless a great resource for information on the main vehicles and pilots until the launch of the soviet Mir space station. Excellent photography and diagrams throughout, but quite amusing to read in light of later revelations about the actual history behind the programme.

A book by the same name, published in 1972 with the subtitle 'Cosmonauts in Orbit' covers the more human drama much more comprehensively. A slightly dry and uninspiring read, with black and white photographs and rather poor line drawings, it too is hampered by a restriction on information and relies heavily on speculation for the bulk of its information.

The Janes guidebooks have always been an excellent source of technical information and the 'Space Recognition Guide' is no exception. A thick digest pocketbook, it covers all recent space activity until its publication in 2008, so recent Mars missions and the outer planetary probes are not present, but every civil and military satellite, vehicle and complex is discussed in great detail, making it a handy resource for reference. 

Finally, a real rarity and a very unusual book, which unfortunately I am simply unable to read as it is entirely in russian! The titel translates as something to the effect of 'Battle for Space Supremacy' and I saw it mentioned on Anatoly Zaks wonderful Russian Space Web. Taking the cyrillic text and popping into the ever trusty google, I found and ex-library copy for sale in the US for a couple of pounds and took a gamble.

It paid off quite well as a small hardback book arrived, lavishly illustrated with a section of black and white photographs showing the Spiral and Buran shuttle programme, planned moon and mars missions and all kinds of other weird and wonderful tech. Using an OCR scanner, I was able to get a rough translation of some of the captions and understand a little about what was represented, but just for sheer eye candy it was well worth it!