Photographic observation of the Moon is undergoing a worldwide renaissance among present-day amateurs, partly through professional video cameras at affordable prices and even more through the availability of image-processing software written by amateurs. With modern imaging techniques and the corresponding software for image processing and observational planning, amateurs today obtain images of the Moon, taken with telescopes with apertures of 150–350 mm, in which the resolution is in the sub-arcsecond region. Their quality is far superior to the professional images in the large lunar atlases of the last century. The 388 Moon photographs shown in this lunar atlas were chosen from the resources of the three participating astrophotographers. They were all obtained with digital cameras. Alan Chu, a lunar photographer from Hong Kong, mainly uses a 10-inch Newtonian. Mario Weigand, an astrophotographer from Offenbach, took his photographs with 11- and 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, while Wolfgang Paech from Hannover photographed the Moon with a 6-inch refractor and a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, not only from Germany, but also from Namibia. The photographs from the three authors were augmented by individual photos by Michael Theusner and Wolfgang Sorgenfrey.

The basis for the text of this book came from the Photographic Moon Book by Alan Chu. It was translated, brought up-to-date, and significantly expanded by Wolfgang Paech.

The authors thank Wolfgang Sorgenfrey, a pioneer of high-resolution lunar photography in Germany. He made his best images available and initiated many stimulating email discussions on the subject of image processing. Thanks are also due to Michael Theusner, the programmer of AviStack, who provided some high-resolution colour images.