Astronomy Books

The book is much more `Eurocentric' than is `politically correct' these days. By example the `zero symbol' is attributed to Greece, thence to Egypt then to the Orient. Others disagree. This author presents data, lists and writings from the original sources ... he has received `lifetime awards' form mathematical societies but the popular press has called other authors on zero, "ball buster's"

This book is a very deep investigation of the topic of the title. While not a `page turner' for most if one relishes tidbits of fascinating information on numbers, antique maths, astronomical methods and spends the time to read the notes as well as the text when they finish this book they will have a good grip of the breadth of Mesopotamian knowledge of these subjects.

It gives a good overview of the mathematics, and astronomy that was aquired in these cultures, and the progression of this to the more modern Greek and Roman cultures.

Information is presented in hundreds (even thousands?) of well-written entries explaining and describing topics as diverse as the role of extraterrestrials in science fiction to Cepheid Variable stars, from laundry lists of nearby star systems to biographies of prominent scientists. The length and breadth of the information presented is truly impressive.

All information is throughly cross-referenced, with more detailed references indicated by a dark arrow.

Entries are written with an interest in the search for extraterrestrial life, but the book is a fine general reference work for amateurs interested in all space sciences.

The only complaint I have is that I wish there were more detailed illustrations for some concepts; if half stars were available, I might rate this book 4-and-a-half for this, but it deserves better than a four, in my opinion.

All in all, an extremely valuable reference, as well as a fascinating read in and of itself if you are interested in space science.

By the way, my favorite David Darling book is Zen Physics: The Science of Death, the Logic of Reincarnation (1996), which is a very readable and profound look at human consciousness, a book I cannot recommend highly enough. (See my review!)

Included here are objects and energies in space, instruments and machines for exploring space, mythological references to the heavens, historical cosmic events, catastrophes from space, ideas about space, space programs (some still only on the drawing boards), space scientists and scientists tangentially involved in some aspect of the extraterrestrial, scientists who have mentioned something otherworldly, historical figures that have mentioned something otherworldly, science fiction writers, movie and book titles about space, aspects of other sciences that could be applied to things extraterrestrial, etc., etc.

But this is not a dry reference book. On the contrary it is exciting to read and fun to flip through. Opening it at random to page 164 I find "Galileo (spacecraft)" which I learn is the "first spacecraft to conduct long-term observations of Jupiter" with Jupiter in bold face so that I know I can cross-reference it if I like. There is a little table in the entry giving the launch date, the date of arrival at Jupiter and other information about the spacecraft. Darling also uses bold-faced arrows in the text to point to related entries. Here an arrow points to "Jupiter, moons of," which has further information about the Galileo spacecraft.

The next entry is "Galton, Francis (1822-1911)" making me wonder what the old social Darwinian had to do with the extraterrestrial. Turns out he proposed in a letter to the editor of the London Times in 1892 that sunlight be reflected toward Mars to catch the attention of any possible Martians.

Next are "gamma rays" and the "gamma-ray burster" (two full-page columns worth) carrying me to the next page where there is "Ganymede," the Galilean satellite that is the largest moon in the solar system.

There are long entries on topics that Darling considers "of central importance or popular interest" such as Frank Drake's famous equation (Darling evaluates each variable) and SETI which includes a list of programs from 1960 to 1999 with information about the investigator, the location, frequency used, etc.

One senses that one of Darling's main tasks in compiling and writing this book was to decide what to include and what to leave out. How pertinent does something have to be to be included? I wasn't surprised to see paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould with an entry since his idea of punctuated equilibrium (also included) depends in part on catastrophic environmental changes, some brought about by extraterrestrial events. Nor were the entries on the elements from the periodic table surprising. (There's a very nice entry on the biological abundance of elements both here and in space.) But I was surprised to find many entries on biology and microbiology, including entries on DNA and RNA. And yet, one can see how they are relevant in thinking about extraterrestrial life.

As a side note, remember Whitley Strieber who wrote the book Communion: A True Story (1987), purporting to be an actual experience with aliens?--a book, by the way, for which he reportedly got a million dollar advance. Well, according to the entry by his name here, he confessed in 1993 that he made it all up!

There's a chronology at the back of the book identifying events under the categories, "The Search for Life in Space," "Science Fiction," and "World/Scientific Events" beginning in 580 BCE. There are also several pages devoted to Web Sites with URLs. Darling has footnoted his text with 634 references giving book titles and journals for further reading.

One final thought: In the future there will be an encyclopedia devoted to every subject and to every creature and to every person under heaven. And those encyclopedias will be on the Web (as will future editions of this book, I predict). And it will be part of our life experience to update our encyclopedia, as Darling will surely have to do with this book in a few years.

Things bode ill for the Boomschmidt Circus when Herbert Garble (who has never had an honest day in his life) joins them with six strange looking men from Mars - each a foot high, in red pajamas and wearing red fluffy whiskers. Freddy is sure there is some fraud involved, but the Circus is making a ton of money and the last thing the farm animals want to do is hurt Mr. Boomschmidt. Freddy, Jinx the Cat, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Peppercorn head out to investigate.

What they find is pretty fishy, or rather, pretty ratty. Mean old Simon the rat and his family are up to their necks in trouble making, and Garble's Martians are just the start. If the rats have their way the Beans will be forced off their farm and Uncle Ben will lose his rocket ship. Drastic times call for drastic measures as the animals prepare to go to war.

If things are strange with fake Martians, they get stranger when a flying saucer full of real Martians shows up to investigate. Soon there are rats pretending they are Martians, rabbits pretending they are rats pretending they are Martians, and real Martians stirring the pot. As Freddy nearly is sent to Montana to become pork chops and bacon, everything hangs in the balance.

As always Walter Brooks' tales combine humor and suspense with a natural sense of values that apply equally to animal and man. If the science in this book is a bit silly it is still engaging enough for its intended readership. And the simple lessons of friendship and doing what is right never grow old.

Dyson explains how well-intentioned scientific projects get corrupted by politics so much that their outcomes and results are many times enervated by sundry extraneous issues and agendas. He also discusses how he thinks higher education could be improved via the institution of fresh approaches and schemes. As an added bonus, Feynman's legions of admirers will be delighted by the stories of he & Dyson's friendship.

This work is filled with remarkable clarity of thought & truly conveys majesty of this remarkable man's perspective on the world. I have the cassette version of this title & on it Dyson narrates the book himself. He has a pleasant voice & I would recommend this medium for Dyson's fans out there.

Physicist and philosopher Freeman Dyson writes about science, scientists, politics, arms control, nature and humanity. Includes book reviews, biographical sketches, obituaries, book introductions, and more.

Some of the pieces would be best enjoyed by physicists and scientists; most are very accessible. A few are incredibly profound.

--Stefan Jones

The items of this book are so importants to any student in astronomy, and is very interesting to the other people, if they like study the universe.

I like so much the part about CCD, and the study of spectrography, I realy want to have this book with me.

Thank you so much.

Pablo Cuartas.

What a smart guy he must have been!

This book makes for some very interesting reading. It is rather dated, though, with the mass of Pluto being placed at equivalent to the Earths, and with water oceans being speculated about for Venus. Admittedly, this probably does mean that some of the conclusions are suspect. However, the depth of information in this book does make it an interesting resource for science-fiction authors, and other interested in speculating about extra-solar planets for man.

It includes many equation and scientific data (for example.. Si pixel turns photons to electrons, several useful S/N equations, image processing .. from dark frame substracing to calculating expose time of flat field image

again .. mail me if you need more information at wiphu@kirdkao.org