For millions of years, mankind has gazed into the heavens, wide-eyed with wonder at the ghostly satellite we've come to know as the Moon. Artists, astronomers, poets, and plow-hands, all yearning to know what exactly it is that silently orbits just off our doorstep - that mysterious orb and first step to what truly is the final frontier. Yet throughout history only twelve men have set foot in a world other than our own. And of those twelve men only one has had the unique perspective of an artist: Alan Bean. Here--in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo landing on the Moon, July 20, 1969-- is his eyewitness testimony.

The book accompanies an exhibition of Alan Bean's paintings at the National Air and Space Museum, opening in July 2009....