Brian May (1)Besprekingen

Mission Moon 3-D offers readers a unique look at the Apollo astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts and what they saw on their missions by presenting readers with photographs in three dimensions. Using the special viewer included with the book, readers can view the photographs stereographically and enjoy a truly exceptional viewing experience.

The narrative begins with the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union and covers all lunar missions as well as looking at some Gemini and Voskhod missions and the high price of lost life paid by space explorers in both nations. Along with the text and pictures, there is a glossary, a forward by astronaut Charlie Duke and an afterword by astronaut Jim Lovell.

For readers interested in space exploration or science or history, or those simply looking for an uncommon way of experiencing the information in a book, this is a must-read volume.

Highly recommended.

an absolute delight when used with the 3D viewer

Yes, there is a faint whiff of cheese about this book, but perhaps that's unavoidable, considering that a good part of the target market is made up of nostalgiacs. Despite that, it's a terrific book, filled with stereographs that literally leap off the page at you when viewed with the enclosed viewer -- which also works just fine with any old stereocards you might have lying around in the attic. T.R. Williams was a commercial photographer who flourished at just the time (1850's) that 3-d photography became a craze, due to Victoria and Albert's endorsement at the Great Exhibition. One of his special projects was to document his little home town, Hinton Waldrist. Some 150 years later, the fruits of his labors have been brought to you and me by Queen's bassist, Brian May. It's a weird old world, isn't it?½

An extraordinary book, part stereoscopic adventure, part love song to a bygone Britain, this is far and away the most engaging volume in the history of photography, and of everyday life in the mid-nineteenth century I have ever seen. The stereo viewer is superlative, period-imbued, and foldable, and each frame is a paean to the strange presence of the 3D past. An added bonus is a bio of the photographer, with viewable stereos of the Crystal Palace in both its Hyde Park and Sydenham incarnations.

I don't think that lavishly illustrated, large-format intros are the inimitable Sir Patrick's usual style of extolling astronomy, but that's what we have here.

I got this for Paul's birthday, to be fair mostly because I wanted to read it.

We read it together, taking it in turns to read out loud to each other, which was great fun, and we ended up discussing lots of things, with Paul explaining some of the stuff I didn't get in more detail.½