The Production GuideAtlas
The Production GuideThanks to Marcus Lindoos
In Brian The Brain we see pages from the computer's memory. In fact, they are pages from an astronomy atlas. Marcus Lindoos has identified the atlas as the 1974 edition of New Concise Atlas Of The Universe by Patrick Moore.
The book was published in the UK by Mitchell Beazley Publishers, London. It was also published in other countries; in the US by Rand McNally and in translation including Sweden as "Planeter och Universum". The first edition was 1970, but this version is probably the 1974 edition. The Mars map is clearly based on Mariner 9 images from 1971-72, but these are not in the 1978 edition. New editions of this book have been published every few years, including 2000 and 2003.
The following table is a comparison of pages from the Swedish 1978 edition. The diagrams related to Mars do not appear in this book.
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page 55: map of the lunar south pole. |
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Page 99: diagram of well known asteroid orbits. |
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Page 126: double star orbits (Sirius A/B) |
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Page 128: distribution of open star clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. |
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Page 136: radio map of the active galaxy Centaurus A |
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This book seems also to be the source for some of the astronomy quoted in The Taybor.
"So you want to return to your Earth? This galaxy?"
"No. Galaxy M104. It's half way between PKS 1148 00 and 3C454."
PKS 1148-00 is the leftmost galaxy cluster on the map on p.134 while 3C 454 is visible on the far right of page 135. The galaxy M104 is an embarrassing mistake on Koenig's part. (Our galaxy is in fact the Milky Way: M104 is the Sombrero Hat galaxy, 40 million light years away.)
It's a spiral galaxy, right near M33 and NGC 185, in a small cluster, 30 or so...
NGC185 and M33 are indeed located right next to our Milky Way galaxy on the map on page 132, and the caption notes [in Swedish] that our local galaxy cluster is a fairly minor group comprising fewer than 30 known members. The diagram doesn't indicate the relative size of the galaxies (the Milky Way and Andromeda are far larger than the other galaxies). Later research will have changed the diagram. M33 nows seems to be slightly more distant than Andromeda, M31, and both M33 and NGC 185 are now generally regarded as satellite galaxies of Andromeda, not the Milky Way.
