Accession No

6264

Brief Description

8-inch topographical (relief) glow-in-the-dark lunar (Moon) globe, with accompanying map and manual, by Educational Frontiers Inc., U.S.A., 1969

Origin

U.S.A.; New York; Bronx

Maker

Educational Frontiers Inc.

Class

astronomy

Earliest Date

1969

Latest Date

1969

Inscription Date

1969

Material

plastic (perspex; PVC?); paper

Dimensions

w: 228mm; d: 228mm; h: 240mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from www.eBay.com from vendor jtcollectiques, 17/11/2008.

Inscription

Description Notes

8-inch topographical (relief) glow-in-the-dark lunar (Moon) globe, with accompanying map and manual, by Educational Frontiers inc., USA, 1969.

Hollow plastic globe with exaggerated relief features and glow in the dark terrain, formed from two moulded halves joined together. Globe sphere sit loose on a clear perspex stand.

Surface features of the Moon are depicted using a contrasting colour scheme of dark grey for the highland terrae regions of the lunar surface, and pale cream for the lunar plain maria regions of the lunar surface. The pale cream areas glow in the dark.

There are no text markings on the globe.

Accompanying the globe is a fold out ‘Moon globe map’, which shows 3 images of the Moon’s surface on each side, with major features of the selenography labelled.

Also accompanying the globe is a 48 page manual containing details about the globe and general information about the Moon.

References

Events

Description
Before missions in the 1960s by NASA and the Soviet Space Programme, humans had never seen the far side of the moon. As a result, Moon globes had a blank side. This Moon globe was made in 1969 and employed recently published NASA maps of the far side of the moon, which makes this example one of the first American globes to depict the entire surface of the Moon.

By releasing the globe in 1969, the globe manufacturers Educational Frontiers Inc. tapped in to popular interest in the Moon caused by the NASA Apollo missions to land men on the lunar surface. The globe is accompanied by a manual full of facts about the Moon, and claims that: “The reproduction on the cover of this Manual is a photograph of your Moon globe, taken in the New York studios of CBS-TV, where the globe is used as the Moon for all simulations during the Apollo flight missions.”

The surface features of the Moon are depicted using a contrasting colour scheme of dark grey for the highland terra regions of the lunar surface, and the pale cream for the lunar plain maria regions of the lunar surface. The pale cream areas glow in the dark. Accompanying the globe is a fold-out ‘Moon-globe map’, which displays major selenographic features. Selenography is the branch of astronomy that deals with the charting of the Moon’s surface.
14/01/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 14/01/2014

FM:46746