Accession No

6253

Brief Description

13-inch lunar (Moon) globe, by Paul Räth / Räthgloben, East German, 1976

Origin

East Germany; Leipzig

Maker

Paul Räth / Räthgloben

Class

astronomy;

Earliest Date

1976

Latest Date

1976

Inscription Date

1976

Material

plastic (Bakelite?); metal (stainless steel); paper (paper; cardboard)

Dimensions

diameter: 330mm; height: 420mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Dorotheum Auction House, Palais Dorotheum, A-1010 Wien, Dorotheergasse 17, Austria. Lot 29 in Historische Wissenschaftliche Instrumente und Globen sale, 29/10/2008.

Inscription

[Cartouche]
“RÄTHS ERDMONDGLOBUS
Durchmesser 33 cm, Maßstab 1:10500000
Redaktion: Ing.-Kartograph Hellmuth Wolf
Redaktion, Kartographie und Offsetdruck:
VEB Hermann Haack, Geographisch-
Kartographische Anstalt Gotha/Leipzig
Reproduktion: VEB Verpackungsmittelwerk
Ernst Thälmann Saalfeld,Werk Saalfeld
Verlag:VEB Räthgloben-Verlag Leipzig, VLN 1003
9/7/77 Redaktionsschluß: 6/1976 Made in GDR”

Description Notes

13-inch lunar (Moon) globe, by Paul Räth / Räthgloben, East German, 1976.

Twelve coloured paper gores and two polar calottes on cardboard sphere, on dark brown Bakelite (?) stand.

Selenography (scale 1:10500000) is depicted using a contrasting colour scheme of pale yellows and browns for the highland terrae regions of the lunar surface, and darker blues for the lunar plain maria regions of the lunar surface.

Surface features such as ‘seas’ (’Mare’), ‘oceans’ (’Oceanus’), impact craters and rilles are labelled with their name. The landing sites of Soviet and American manned and unmanned space flights to the moon are labelled in red.

Editorial: Ing.-cartographer Hellmuth Wolf
Editing, cartography and printing:
VEB Hermann Haack, Geographically -
Cartographic Institute Gotha / Leipzig
Reproduction: VEB packing plant
Ernst Thälmann Saalfeld, Saalfeld plant
Publisher: Räthgloben VEB-Verlag Leipzig, VLN 1003
9/7/77 Close: 6 / 1976 Made in GDR

References

Events

Description
By the 1970s, both the U.S. and Soviets had produced highly detailed charts of the Moon’s surface, accurate to within tens of metres. Globe makers like Räthgloben were able to produce highly detailed globes like this example, which show every major impact crater and rille (narrow depression) in the lunar surface.

The Moon’s far side is dissimilar in appearance to the near side of the Moon that permanently faces the Earth. The near side is characterized by a contrasting landscape of rugged highland ‘terrae’ (from the Latin for ‘Earth’) and much flatter lowland ‘maria’ (from the Latin for ‘sea’). This contrast can be seen on the Replogle and topographical globes. Conversely, the far side on this globe is almost entirely lacking in lowland ‘maria’, consisting almost exclusively of the rugged crater covered terrain that characterizes lunar ‘terrae’ highland.
14/01/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 14/01/2014

FM:46744