Astronomy Books

Reading Chet Raymo is like taking a deep, cleansing breath and exhaling slowly--one is filled with inspiration and joy. More than learning about the wonder of the night sky and beyond, you become part of it. This is my fourth Chet Raymo book, and I look forward to another.

This book requires a certain level of knowledge. Knowledge about astronomy, e.g. star constellations and star names, about chemistry, e.g. atomic structures, and about biology. Further more, a spiritual sense for nature and existence combined with a questioning but open mind should be part of the reader's characteristics. If you have all this, you will love to explore this book, just like me. You will find questions you are asking yourself, too, as well as new hints and new perspectives to look at "things" written in an almost poetic language. And, that's the best, you learn. Even though theories about quarks or the beginning of the universe and our existence are hard to understand, you will get an idea about it all with this book. Theory is presented in an easy to read way and written in a wonderful descriptional language using parabels and comparisons to create pictures in your mind. I am already halfway through and I do not want this book to end. It is going to be one of my very favorite books.

I read this book for a college course on Ecocriticism and was totally spellbound. I read it in one sitting and it made me crave for that feeling you get while standing under the stars--realizing how small you are--and how infinetly wonderous at the same time. Everybody should read this book, it is beautiful and important for understanding humankind's place within nature.

"For Beauty's nothing but the beginning of Terror" - page 13
This is such a beautifully written and illustrated book. Each chapter gently reveals us through our science, religion, poetry, and history. Now I know why whisperings of Magic began in the night so long ago and continue to present times.

"Soul" is one of my favorite books of all time. Raymo is to astronomy what Thoreau is to naturalism. This book will stir the wonder in anybody and renew your appreciation for the wonders of the sky.

While this is a children's book, I have given the small 5" x 5" version to countless friends and family as a greeting card when they were faced with terminal illnesses. My Mother and I shared this book in her final days as a joyful vision of the wonder that lay beyond. I always have a small supply on hand to share with those who need to be reminded.

This book made me cry with happiness every time I read it to our daughter. The meaning of life in a children's book. Who would have expected that!

This was my oldest son's favorite bedtime story over 25 years ago. He had a vivid imagination, and I would delight in seeing his eyes light up as I would read the story to him. I attempted to repair the cover of our copy with clear contact paper, as it started to fall apart long before he was ready to give it up. It is in my stack of books to pass on to his children someday. This would be a wonderful gift for anyone, and after reading some of the other reviews, perhaps I should dig it out and re-read it myself from a different perspective.

This book was a gift to me about ten years ago. It has brought a calming feeling to me when I would come home from work. I have given this book to my staff and other managers where I work. You see I work in an assisted living facility. I am one of the staff that the residents come to when they are frustrated, confused, worried or in need of a sounding board, for comfort, or just a friend. I am the on who is there with the family when their loved one passes. Some days I come home wiped out and drained. Caretakers of Wonder is that little book that gives me a big lift.

This book was given to our family by friends when my father in law passed away. My children were young and would ask "Where did Grandpa Go?" What a great way to explain to children in a way that they could understand. My kids are grown, the book has been shared with everyone of their friends, including my daughters third grade class. When we see butterflies we say, "That's Grandpa", when we see the stars at night we find grandpa. It has allowed him to live on in everything we see and do. My grown kids are all proud owners of their own copies. I wish they'd reprint, I'd love to have a supply to pass on to others for this same reason. Thank you Eden Cooper. OUR favorite book.

This cosmology book contains relatively little mathematics, so it can be read by almost any motivated person who is genuinely curious about the subject. And it has an enormous amount of interesting information that ought to intrigue even highly informed scientists.

Harrison traces the history of cosmology and reviews some elementary astronomy. Then we get to the question of a cosmological center and the Copernican Principle. Next is a stimulating discussion of whether the universe has an edge or boundary in space or time. After that, we're ready to read about curved space, relativity, and black holes (including "cosmic censorship," Hawking radiation, and black hole thermodynamics, entropy, and information content).

There is a wonderful chapter on the expansion of the universe, and an explanation of the Hubble sphere and its relation to the observable universe.

After a description of several models of the universe, we get to some observational cosmology: use of redshifts and supernovae to establish distance scales, ages of the universe, galaxies, and stars, amount of helium produced by a hot big bang, and questions about "dark matter." Harrison then discusses what happened not in the "first three minutes," but in the first second, including how inflationary theory can solve the horizon problem, the flatness problem, and the monopole problem.

Near the end of the book, there is a fine explanation of why the sky is dark at night (resolving "Olbers' paradox"). The book concludes with a short discussion of life in the universe.

This is an excellent and fascinating book.

Cosmology, or the scientific study of the universe as whole, has in the past 25 years seen explosive growth and progress in unfolding the nature and history of our universe. Yet for many people, the findings of cosmology and the main theories lie hidden in impenetrable obscurity due to the highly technical mathematics involved. This is highly unfortunate, as it is arguable what we discover in the heavens is certainly as important as things we discover on the Earth.

Harrison is both a veteran scientific cosmologist, and he also has an excellent knowledge of the humanities. Unfortunately this breed of scientist seems fairly rare nowadays, especially those who write for a large audience, though some do manage brilliantly to combine first rate science with a sound knowledge of the humanities (Peter Medewar, Richard Dawkins, John Barrow). This book is then not just simply an account of modern scientific cosmology but is also an account of how pictures of the universe imagined by various thinkers ranging from scientists to theologians to philosophers and poets, has changed through time, often in radical ways.

Harrison argues there is no perfect one to one relationship between a picture of the universe we make and the Universe as it is in itself. Harrison adopts a rather Kantian position that we only know things as they appear to us, not as they are in themselves. Hence we only ever develop 'masks of the universe' which cover the true Universe itself, and all our attempts to understand the universe fall short of the reality. Interestingly he takes this argument somewhat further in another book and argues for 'learned ignorance' (a term he takes from Nicholas of Cusa) about our quest to comprehend the cosmos.

Harrison then proceeds to look at both what astronomy and modern physics tell us about the nature of the physical universe, and also examines other pictures of the universe developed by philosophers, theologians, and poets. Harrison raises some fascinating points including the mysterious Olber's Paradox and the problem of the water bucket and inertia (a problem which troubled Einstein and Mach), the end and beginning of the universe, cosmic creation, and what the implications might be of finite and infinite universes.

Overall this book is a fascinating and highly accessible introduction to cosmology and is a must read not just for interested scientists and students but also by philosophers, theologians, and others who are curious about what science tells us about our place in the scheme of things.

Although my education is in physics, it is all but impossible to keep up with your own field of study, let alone with all the other areas. Hence it is nice to find a book like this once in a while that will cover what's going on in areas of interest outside your own specialty.

So much of physics is buried so deep in mathematics that it is sometimes difficult to see the picture that the math is showing us. This book is the best I've seen that gives at least some discussion to the riddles that remain at the bottom of subjects like time, space, gravity, black holes, multi-dimensional -- the things that got most of us interested in physics in the first place. The overall treatment has to be considered elementary (no math) but quite broad in scope.

At the end of each chapter are two sections called Reflections and Projects. Between the two, I was reminded of Einstein's famous 'thought experiments.' Here is discussion that takes you beyond the text, beyond the state of the art as it is now known.

This book was first written in 1981. It went through a major upgrade in 2000 and a minor upgrade in 2005. As such it isn't absolutely up to date with the latest findings. For instance 'dark matter' is included, but 'dark energy' isn't. Then again anything that's printed in book form is going to be a bit out of date, by definition.

Excellent reading material for the undergraduate just getting started or those of us who've been 'here' while this part of the science went 'there.'

I have been studying astronomy since 1970.

If you know a great deal about stars, planets, the Milky Way, etc., you can still be very ignorant about General Relativity, the expansion of space, the cosmological constant, etc.. That was my situation in the 1980's. Then I found Dr. Harrison's book, the first edition. It was a revelation, and the second edition is even better.

Dr. Harrison is an old school academic with a deep knowledge of the history, philosophy, and science of cosmology, and he communicates his knowledge very well. Master this book and you will know more cosmology than many working astronomers.

If you want to travel farther, this is your stepping stone to more technical works.

Highly recommended!

The first time I bought the next addition of any book. It explaines gravity and that makes it far better then any other book on this subject.

Nanobacteria have been researched by many prominent scientists worldwide. This book looks at the findings of scientists with respect to Nanobacteria and the science of Geology. Nanobacteria, specifically Nanobacterium Sanguineum, have been studied by scientists and medical researchers as they pertain to causing human disease or Pathology as well. Nanobacterium Sanguineum is a Nanobacteria that is approximately 10,000 times smaller than regular bacteria. It replicates from 1000 to 10,000 times slower than regular bacteria as well. It grows in the human system in blood, and has been found by various medical researchers and scientists to cause many human problems. Some of the various diseases that it has either been implicated to be involved with or to cause are: Calcification in atherosclerotic plaque, kidney stones, calcification in the lenses of eyes that ultimately causes "cataracts", soft tissue calcification in scleroderma, calcification in tumors, calcification in arthritis or osteoarthritis and other pathological disease states in humans. These Nanobacteria colonize and secrete a "biofilm" over themselves that causes them to be covered by a calcium "shell". These Nanobacteria are implicated to be the cause of all calcification in the human system that you were not born with, that you subsequently develop as you age. These Nanobacteria are also implicated in causing some forms of cancer and "apoptosis" or cell death. Scientists are now working on ways to eradicate Nanobacterium Sanguineum with prescription medications. Please keep your eyes open for further research regarding Nanobacteria. Try surfing on the web for "nanobacteria". Sincerely, Gary S. Mezo, President of the Academy of Medical NanoScience, Tel:813-264-2241.

For starters I will never look at my mineral collection quite the same again. Dark Life has shown that nanobacteria (only recently confirmed)is the absolute frontier of a new world. Minerals and "life" coexist and the nanobacteria "feed" upon the chemical compositions of minerals. The scientific world will be turned on its' head in the near future as a whole new science emerges. This book is easy to understand for those of us who aren't scientits but who are interested. As one who also has Multiple Sclerosis the possible connection with nanobacteria and mineral plaques in the brain was astounding as I read it.

_Dark Life_ by Michael Ray Taylor was a very interesting book. The author began it writing as a science journalist - having written a previous book on cave exploration as well has having articles published in such magazines as _Audubon_ - but over the course of the two and a half years he worked on this book went from becoming an observer to an active participant, a point he himself made several times in amazement and wonder. Originally he had set out to chronicle what was known about "dark life," microorganisms that dwell far underground or in the deep sea, organisms that derive their nourishment from sources independent of sunlight. These organisms, which have been found in such varied places as salt domes, Antarctic ice cores, and in highly acidic caves, have continually challenged notions of what life can tolerate, organisms so common that they may outnumber surface organisms (indeed Taylor rejected the commonly used term "extremophile" as he believes the term implies that these organisms are a "rare curiosity"). Taylor wrote of the history of the search for these microbes, the personalities involved, and where current research was in the field (as well as possible applications of this research).

Somewhere along the way he became part of the story, as he became the friend and later colleague of several of the researchers he covered. While not a trained scientist per se, at least not in the field of microbiology, he assisted in and even proposed a number of experiments in the search for controversial nanobacteria (microbes with a size of less than 0.2 micrometers, once thought to be too small to be an independent functioning organism or at least too small for a prokaryotic organism, including known bacteria and archaea; not a virus) in a variety of environments, mostly notably Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. By the end of the book he was regularly exchanging email with researchers, providing samples for them, and even had co-authored a few presentations at various seminars.

Much of the book is focused on personalities - understandable given Taylor's increasing personal involvement in the story himself - though mainly in the context of research on the topic at hand. The main characters (if you will) in the book were Larry Mallory (a scientist who had devoted his career to harvesting and culturing cave microbes in a promising search for a cure for cancer, particularly from microbes from the fascinating Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, an interesting place described in great detail in the book), Bob Folk (a colorful scientist who discovered nanobacteria and their presence in a number of substances and had been in the lead in efforts to prove that microorganisms are vital in the formation of travertine in caves and hot springs as well as in some cases at least entire caves and cave systems), and Anne Taunton (an undergraduate student who as part of a NASA internship became embroiled in the efforts to determine whether or not the famed Martian meteorite ALH 84001 contained fossils of extraterrestrial nanobacteria). Others are followed to lesser degrees, among them Finnish nanobacteria expert E. Olavi Kajander, who had done pioneer work showing that nanobacteria may be the possible agents of many maladies such as kidney stones, Alzheimer's, and Mad Cow Disease that involve mineral precipitation in the body. In large measure these and other personalities faced considerable skepticism, criticism, and worse in their studies, as scientists found it hard to accept (in different instances) what was thought of as "impossibly" small bacteria, biological origins for various types of minerals and mineral formations, and the presence of microfossils in ALH 84001. Mallory had to leave his university because he was essentially denied tenure, the administration not believing his study of cave microorganisms important, Folk faced considerable criticism for suggesting that such substances as travertine owed their origins to bacteria, and Taunton (and the team she worked with) had a very difficult time with several scientists - including even her own undergraduate academic advisor - over efforts to demonstrate that the ALH 84001 microfossils were evidence of Martian life or even life of any kind. Although Taylor did a good job of showing the fact there was sometimes intense and even rather personal criticism in science, I don't know if he always showed why people had such a hard time accepting bold new theories. In particular some of the opposition to ALH 84001 fossils was quite heated.

Though much of the focus was on personalities, politics, and the process of research the microbes were much discussed as well, many with bizarre biologies. Some cold-loving organisms were termed "psychrophiles," capable of growth below freezing, at -5 degrees Celsius, organisms that exhibit slower metabolisms at temperatures above freezing and death at anything approaching human body temperature (organisms that for years - like many other examples of dark life - proved difficult to study and culture in the lab). Some organisms found in apparently solid rock two miles deep, existing only on hydrogen and water, have unbelievably slow metabolisms, appearing to divide cells no more than once per century. Though many caves and indeed individual pools in caves produced unique microorganisms there were also astonishing similarities; the closest relatives to some sulfur-oxidizing thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria from a cave in Kentucky were found to be a sulfur-oxidizing, symbiotic bacterium from a deep sea polychaeta worm, a relationship that has not yet been explained.

At least as far as this reader is concerned Taylor made his case that nanobacteria exist, that they are key in the formation of some minerals and many caves, and I am very open to the idea that ALH 84001 may indeed contain Martian microfossils. I enjoyed reading about the discussions scientists had about whether or not subsurface Antarctic lakes such as Lake Vostok and Jovian moon of Europa might have dark life and hope that both can be analyzed in the not too distant future.

I read this book after buying on a discout shelf in some clearance book seller. It was a pleasant surprise. It, as I wrote in the title, a little heavy on human drama and soap operatic themes. The science behind it is absolutely interesting and has spurred me to read further on the topic of nanobacteria. This is a great starting out book, but not a great book for those reading for the science of it.

This book documents journeys of discovery and transformation at several levels. It documents a journalist's personal journey from observer to active participant. It also serves as a chronicle of the journeys being taken by scientists all over (and underneath) the Earth and across our solar system to obtain an understanding of life's amazing ability to exist and thrive in the most improbable places.

The author starts out as a spelunking (cave exploring) science journalist and ends up as an active participant in the science he had originally set out to cover. In so doing he has provided an interesting mix of observer and participant perspectives. Being a seasoned cave explorer, the author is at home and adept at describing the techniques and hazards of natural laboratories such as Lechuguilla Cave located in New Mexico.

Astrobiologists have found caves to be excellent laboratories for the extreme environments that may be found on other worlds such as Mars. Moreover, the amazing adaptations Earth life has made to these environments also serve as indicators of what is possible in terms of life's ability to adapt - and may be indicative of what we might find underneath Mars. Getting around in these caves is not your run of the mill field trip. Sulfurous and caustic fumes, anoxic conditions, temperature extremes, risk of injury, and a myriad of other hazards all combine to make these explorations something that only skilled individuals should undertake. In so doing, the rewards to the risk takers are obvious - and are thoroughly documented by the author.

There is much more to this book than crawling around stinky caves with excited astrobiologists. There is tedious work back at the lab, and the inevitable politics that accompanies academic life and government-sponsored research. Given that the discoveries being made about life in extreme environments are brushing aside long held views about biology, the politics can get rather nasty at times. The author provides a cogent description of what happens when the politics and dogma of science collide with new data and ideas. As you read this book you can almost hear the old paradigms crumbling as life's very definitions get an overhaul.

In describing some of the research done at NASA on the ALH84001 Martian meteorite, Taylor provides a classic description of paradigm crumbling - and the threat it can represent to the status quo. The events described surround the work of a student involved in a career-making discovery (possible fossils within a piece of Mars) and an advisor who disputes the findings and seeks to thwart her education at every turn.

While not nearly as dramatic, the author describes many other situations wherein old accepted notions about what life is and where it can be found are challenged. As you travel around - and under - the world with Taylor, you learn about life at abyssal ocean depths, within rocks miles under the Earth's surface, in the cold dry Antarctic, within volcanic deposits, and within highly radioactive environments. Such are the abodes of Earth's so-called "extremophiles".

If astrobiologists have learned anything in the past decade or so, it is that Earth life is capable of existing everywhere that it can theoretically exist. Since some of these "extreme environments" may well pass for "normal" elsewhere in the solar system, the chances of finding life elsewhere start to become quite probable. It is that exciting prospect which is woven by the author throughout the fabric of this book.

The author has gone to great physical extremes to write this book - and it shows. If you want a status report on how astrobiologists are using the Earth as a laboratory for what life may be possible on other worlds, this is it. Moreover, if you are looking for proof that science can still be a bona fide adventure in this Internet-shrunken world, then this book offers that as well.

This work provides the reader with much insight into the world of scientific research and reveals the dedication and devotion scientists must possess in order to endure the setbacks and challenges. One such story is that of Labeyrie and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Bruce Dorminey does an excellent job of explaining the diverse methods of planet detection. Thanks to him, I have finally grasped the concept of interferometry.

Even though Distant Wanderers has been in print for some time, I found it amazingly current. A well written, informative book for the layperson, and a must read for anyone contemplating a career in astronomy or astrophysics.

In an age of the human race's thirst for information regarding the unknown, Bruce Dorminey, hits it out of the galaxy. Extrasolar planets are the rave of future astronomers and to receive first hand knowledge from someone who has become close to the scientists involved in the discoveries allows us, the reader, to get a detailed description of the process and history not seen before. This book is a must for anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject. Fantastic Job, Bruce.

A very timely book! Five years ago there wasn?t enough progress and news to warrant a book on this intriguing subject. Today this field is teeming with excitement and new discoveries. This book takes you behind the scenes of the serious research that is focused on finding planets beyond the solar system.

Bruce Dorminey does an excellent job of setting the stage. For the layman, like me, there are simple explanations of the more technical terms and concepts. These are welcome and wisely placed within the text, making the book highly readable. The professional merely skips over these italicized paragraphs.

As he travels the world to visit observatories, scientists and their scientific conferences, Mr Dorminey adds his own observations of the localities, the technical facilities and the personalities behind some of these remarkable discoveries. Amongst others, we follow him to Chile, Hawaii, the south of France and even the Isle of Capri!

The final chapters on Signatures of Life and Signals of Life are what this search is all about. Fascinating reading!

It is enjoyable and well worth the time to read this well written book on a truly absorbing subject.

The search for planets in orbit around stars outside our own Solar Systems is one of the most exciting fields of science today. Since the first indirect detection of a planet circling another Sun-like star was announced in 1995, dozens of extrasolar planets have been discovered.

In Distant Wanderers, Bruce Dorminey looks at the history, methods, and future of extrasolar planet hunting. He predicts, "Before the end of this new century, every schoolchild will know for certain how many planers circle nearby stars," and whether or not Earth-like planets are a rare anomaly. Like many rapidly developing scientific fields, the search for extra-solar planets has had many controversies and false starts along with the startling new discoveries, and the book presents a variety of theories and viewpoints in a fair and even-handed way.

In the first part of the book, Dorminey, an award-winning science journalist and former bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology, describes methods that planet hunters have used (spectroscopic methods, astrometric detection, interferometry, microlensing, transit studies, and direct imaging through the use of a coronagraphic mask in the focal plane a camera). Although most of these methods require sophisticated technology and painstaking analysis, he explains each term or concept as it is introduced. He makes the science seem simple enough for lay readers to grasp and explains the strengths and limitations of each method.

The rest of the book looks ahead to programs that are planned for the future, including telescopes in space and larger, more sophisticated instruments here on Earth. Some of these programs are already funded and will begin soon. Others are nd ambitious ideas that may not be attempted for years, if they ever happen at all.

Dorminey explains current ideas about formation of planets and discusses the search for Earth-like planets and for chemical signatures of extraterrestrial life. Through interviews with numerous researchers and experts, he presents information on what has already been learned about extrasolar planets and gives readers a feeling for the personalities and activities involved in doing this kind of research. In the process of writing Distant Wanderers, Dorminey himself wandered to far-off places, meeting the scientists and visiting the telescopes that are searching for extrasolar planets. His reports on his travels make the book much more human, interesting, and also tell us something about the writer.

After a visiting the European South Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile's Atacama Desert, Dorminey wrote, "After a night on an observatory mountain, E-mails left unanswered and faxes gone missing seem trivial indeed. I knew that a thousand miles south and several thousand miles north, the world was racing hither and yon. But for me, at that moment, my own existence seemed as precarious as the shallow atmosphere separating us from the nothingness beyond. If only for a fleeting minute, it was impossible not to imagine Earth as it really is: an oasis in the midst of a relative void."

Perhaps you can't quit your day job to make a grand tour of observatories. If that's the case, buy this book and read it. I learned and enjoyed. So will you.

The search for planets in orbit around stars outside our own Solar Systems is one of the most exciting fields of science today. Since the first indirect detection of a planet circling another Sun-like star was announced in 1995, dozens of extrasolar planets have been discovered.

In Distant Wanderers, Bruce Dorminey looks at the history, methods, and future of extrasolar planet hunting. He predicts, "Before the end of this new century, every schoolchild will know for certain how many planers circle nearby stars," and whether or not Earth-like planets are a rare anomaly. Like many rapidly developing scientific fields, the search for extra-solar planets has had many controversies and false starts along with the startling new discoveries, and the book presents a variety of theories and viewpoints in a fair and even-handed way.

In the first part of the book, Dorminey, an award-winning science journalist and former bureau chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology, describes methods that planet hunters have used (spectroscopic methods, astrometric detection, interferometry, microlensing, transit studies, and direct imaging through the use of a coronagraphic mask in the focal plane a camera). Although most of these methods require sophisticated technology and painstaking analysis, he explains each term or concept as it is introduced. He makes the science seem simple enough for lay readers to grasp and explains the strengths and limitations of each method.

The rest of the book looks ahead to programs that are planned for the future, including telescopes in space and larger, more sophisticated instruments here on Earth. Some of these programs are already funded and will begin soon. Others are nd ambitious ideas that may not be attempted for years, if they ever happen at all.

Dorminey explains current ideas about formation of planets and discusses the search for Earth-like planets and for chemical signatures of extraterrestrial life. Through interviews with numerous researchers and experts, he presents information on what has already been learned about extrasolar planets and gives readers a feeling for the personalities and activities involved in doing this kind of research. In the process of writing Distant Wanderers, Dorminey himself wandered to far-off places, meeting the scientists and visiting the telescopes that are searching for extrasolar planets. His reports on his travels make the book much more human, interesting, and also tell us something about the writer.

After a visiting the European South Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile's Atacama Desert, Dorminey wrote, "After a night on an observatory mountain, E-mails left unanswered and faxes gone missing seem trivial indeed. I knew that a thousand miles south and several thousand miles north, the world was racing hither and yon. But for me, at that moment, my own existence seemed as precarious as the shallow atmosphere separating us from the nothingness beyond. If only for a fleeting minute, it was impossible not to imagine Earth as it really is: an oasis in the midst of a relative void."

Perhaps you can't quit your day job to make a grand tour of observatories. If that's the case, buy this book and read it. I learned and enjoyed. So will you.

Very informative book on the mechanics of getting to the moon in the 1960s; also,contains some very good photos.

This book is pitched at the slightly more technical level. So if you're the type of person who likes expanded description, who has a pilot's licence maybe or likes flight simulators, or has mechanical curiosity then you'll find more here on those matters than in the biographical/anecdotal books.
It really is a very satisfying book.

I have over 200 books on the early space program and the race to the moon but this book is by far the best and most detailed I have ever read on just how it was done. I couldn't put it down. If you ever wanted to know, for example, what every abort mode meant during launch or why and how the crew made certain burns during the flight, get this book! It takes the reader from liftoff through splashdown explaining in fantastic detail every step of these wonderful voyages. This book is not a techno-geek's only book. It explains to the common man in the street everything from transfer orbits to gimbal lock. Get this book! I guarentee, even if you thought you knew a lot about it, you'll be amazed at what it took to fly to the moon.

First of all, I second all the wonderful things that folks have said about this book in the other reviews. It beautifully fills in the gaps as to what was actually going on, and explains in relatively simple terms how the systems work. An engineer or space enthusiast won't have any problems with the terminology. A less educated reader might be somewhat less able to understand - but then again, they're probably not the target audience, anyway. As someone who spent his teenage years watching Apollo live, I'm very happy to have the book in my collection.

There are a few quirks that stuck out at me:
(1) The book literally stinks. I don't know what kind of paper and ink combination they used, but the book smells AWFUL. There's something in it that I'm allergic to. It makes me sneeze if it's within 18 inches of my face, so I have to hold it at arms length to read it without my eyes watering and my nose running. I hate to mention that, but it's enough of an issue to be more than just annoying. I have never had that problem with any other book.

(2) Most of the black and white photos are reproduced very darkly. Some of them are so dark that it's difficult to tell what we are supposed to be seeing in the photo.

(3) The author says up front that he will insist on using metric instead of English units because that's the way the rest of the world measures things. As someone who has memorized all the pertinent dimensions of the Apollo from his youth, it's very disconcerting for me to see them expressed solely in different units. In some cases, the author's writing around the units makes this even more bizarre to my American sensibilities. For example, we would say the F-1 engine produced 1.5 million pounds of thrust. On page 19, the author says the F-1 "produced a force that could balance 680 tonnes of mass." I only recall him using the word "thrust" once in the book - the rest of the time, he speaks of balance tonnes of mass.

(4) The editing was a little sloppy. Perhaps the book was not intended to be read sequentially, but there are examples when entire paragraphs are reproduced almost verbatim in several chapters. One section has a footnote that refers the reader to the previous chapter - the one we just read - for a discussion of a concept. The author also introduces verbatim transcripts of transmissions from actual missions to illustrate points about systems that he is discussing. However, he tends to include more of the conversation than is pertinent to the issue in question. It's as if someone is showing you film clips that go on a little longer than they should, past the punch line.

These are relatively minor quibbles, though. Again, I believe this is an excellent book than any fan of the Apollo era will want to have in his or her library.

A page-turner for those interested in the mechanics of spaceflight. Even though it records the events of nearly forty years ago, it is still hard to believe that men put their faith in such frail craft; the chances of safely returning from the voyage to the moon were put at no more than 50/50.

What struck me most about this book was the depth of research, and the revelatory nature of some of the material. For example, while I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the mechanics of Apollo, having eagerly consumed anything and everything I could get my hands on since I was a kid watching it on TV, I was surprised to find out the accuracy required to safely enter lunar orbit. This book reveals that an SPS burn even 2 seconds short or longer than planned could result in either a crash into the Moon or slingshot into solar orbit. And that, once in orbit around the Moon, the time between loss-of-signal and re-aquisition was pre-calculated to the second, and their calculation was invariably right on the money. All this in the era of the slide-rule.

If you have even a passing interest in the technical detail of Man's greatest accomplishment, get this book. Guaranteed to please the hard-core space fan.

When other books fail to get me to sit down and read, this book has always been a true joy. The authors implemented the beauty of art and photography with the quest for the remote unknowns that allow the reader's imagination to grow freely. The contrast between the dark and immense space and colorful and selective graphs grasps the reader's curiosity for search for clues on the ultimate purpose of the universe.

During cold and long nights, that book brings the pleasure of rejoicing the triumph of our human race over myth and trivial conflicts that plagued our long history. The authors demonstrate the immense potential of science and international cooperation in space discovery. It also addresses fundamental issues such as the origin of both biological life as well as stellar and planetary life. Of course, the book did not attempt to explain why some elements were more abundant in the solar system than others, or whether there was an ultimate secret in the large space universe versus the immensely small nuclear core of atoms, or why atoms behaved in such manner that created life and organic matter. The book however laid out the authors' current knowledge about the solar system.

Compared to the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the space program has comparably gigantic antennas of 70 meters diameter, similarly gigantic rocket launching structures, oddly designed neutrino detectors of 40 meter by 40 meters and over a thousand of photo-detectors. The book displays such human yearning for the history-long quest for knowledge of the greater world, with comparable passion for integrating many fields of knowledge.

The sad fact about the science of astronomy is the minute number of scientists of merely 1500 worldwide. While the Pyramids were built thousands years ago with resourceful and generous commitment by the weak state, modern astronomers are confronted with indifferent statesmen and the public that is more interested in feeding, educating, and caring for its own exploding population growth.

As the authors stated in the book introduction, that book neither is a textbook or a coffee table book, but rather in between. The book includes plenty of tables, graphs, and photos without delving into the hard science of space physics. The book reads like an illustrated story telling about the events in the solar system. It thus provides the reader with plenty of food for thought.

The main drawback in the book is the variation of writing styles from one chapter to another since each chapter is written by a different coauthor. Such lack of systematic approach to each topic in the book leaves the reader with the extra task of sorting out its unexpected flow of thoughts. I would rather prefer the unified template of thought flow along all the chapters in order to facilitate the comparison between the different members of the solar system.

Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training (Paperback)

This book is packed full of exciting pictures and is an in depth look at the solar system based on that latest discoveries in space exploration. It is an exciting read for anyone who is into astronomy. Some parts of the book are filled with scientific detail that can be difficult to read, but can be understood if you are willing to get through them.

As a layperson reading this book, I find it very easy to understand what is being said, and I feel that I am learning a great deal from it. The writing is interesting enough to hold my attention and keep me from drifting off, which is a problem I have with many other science texts. Overall, I am finding reading this book an enjoyable experience.

This is a very thorough book, covering many important aspects of planetology. Its level of depth is very adequate to its intended public, that of non-expert but "science-literate" people. Although slightly out-of-date (it's been 5 years since its publication), most of its content is still considered correct. It is a shame that its Amazon average customer review has been degraded by Robert M Carto's unfortunate reviews. Unfortunate because they represent the opinion of someone who believes in the theories of Immanuel Velikovsky. Velikovsky's theories are considered unscientific by the vast majority of astronomy professional researchers (including myself) who have read them.

It's easy to read! You can read the chapters in just about any order. The material is mostly descriptive, without any complicated mathematics. And it's a terrific collection, with wonderful color pictures, graphs, and charts. This Fourth edition (1999) is the first to have pictures (and other data) of Jupiter and of the Jovian satellites taken by the Galileo mission. And yes, I suspect there will be a fifth edition which will include, among other new material, pictures of Saturn and its satellites taken by the Cassini mission.

This is the best possible introduction to the study of our Solar System. I'd recommend reading it before getting into a more formal university textbook on the subject.

Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny.

Some favorite quotes:

"for a long time people thought there must be a special 'life force' which distinguishes living things from nonliving things. This notion that the behavior of living things cannot, even in principle, be understood by ordinary processes of physics and chemistry goes by the name of vitalism. Modern biology has completely discredited vitalism. It is extremely regrettable that vitalistic notions can still be found in many unenlightened regions of this world. To cite a refuge often adopted by vitalists, consider the thermodynamics of living things growing in an organized way [...] it might be thought that living things violate the second law of thermodynamics. This is, however, false [...because] living things are 'open systems' [...] a living thing gains internal order only by introducing more disorder into its surroundings [...] living things do not, in fact, violate the second law. The persistent vitalist might argue that even the gaining of local order at the expense of introducing general disorder seems to require something special. And so it does; it requires an input of free energy [...] living things cannot be regarded as unique in their ability to produce circumstances which violate thermodynamic intuition [p.498...] for some years, vitalists maintained that organic molecules could be made only inside a living organism, i.e., that a 'vital force' made organic chemistry made organic chemistry intrinsically different from inorganic chemistry. This myth received a crushing blow in 1828 [p.512...] in chapter 19 we saw that life, once started, could sustain and naturally gain in complexity without the intervention of vitlaism [p.528]."

-r.c.

This was a superb textbook when it appeared over twenty years ago. It begins with some introductory material about microscopic and macroscopic laws of physics. After that, we learn about stars and their evolution. And binary stars. Next are galaxies and galactic clusters. And cosmology and the hot big bang. Then our planetary system. And we finish with life and intelligence in the universe.

I read this book when it first came out and truly enjoyed it. But I do want to warn folks that it is getting a little out-of-date and definitely needs a new edition. In the past twenty years, we have made plenty of new discoveries. Topics such as dark energy, the accelerating expansion of the universe, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, gamma-ray bursters and soft gamma repeaters, supernova 1987A, ultraluminous infrared galaxies, extrasolar planets and planetary migration, the Big Splat theory of the origin of the Moon, and inflationary models of the big bang are too new to be in this book. Plenty of work on formation of galaxies is too new as well. Descriptions of and recent results from deep space probes and telescopes are not included. That leaves us with much less to discuss about Uranus or Neptune, not to mention recent in situ observations of Mars or questions about water under the icy surface of Europa. And even topics such as artificial intelligence are discussed without the benefit of the past twenty years of perspective.

I still recommend the book. But I wouldn't be able to teach a class on astronomy or astrophysics from this text without supplementing it with a substantial amount of extra material.

Yes, I nicknamed that book like the well-known The Feynman Lectures on Physics. With regard to Feynman, I have no doubt that if Richard Feynman himself is to write a book and give lectures on Astrophysics, he will end up wrote a book similar to this book.

I am a graduate physics student working in experimental high energy physics, but I have always found myself curious about astrophysics. Back in my home country, the literature on astronomy is so rare that I only can manage to borrow and read an old edition of Abell's Exploration of the Universe. It was a good book, but I need more physics to cater my curiosity in astrophysics.

I've heard about this book quite some time, but not until I arrived in USA that I can buy this book through Amazon and start to read it. With my background in graduate level physics, this book is quite an easy read for me.

The book was written with multiple audience in mind: humanities and liberal arts majors who are interested in astrophysics but don't want to use too much mathematics; freshman students with great curiosity but not much mathematical skills; biology, life-science, and pre-med students with interest in astrobiology and the origin of life; general science and engineering students with strong math and physics background but have no intention to have a career in science; and ultimately to those thoughtful, astronomers-astrophysicist-physicist-wanna-be students. Perhaps those are exactly the same kind of audience Shu ever has in Berkeley: Berkeley is famous for diversity.

The book is self-contained, in the sense that (almost) all the necessary scientific concepts and backgrounds are explained: mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, microbiology, genetics, even there are some discussions in supersymmetry and grand unification. There are some parts and problems that requires calculus and advanced undergraduate physics but the reader doesn't have to read those part to understand the results. I was lucky to have all the necessary physics to fully understand the book, but this should not stop laymen and common people to read this book.

The book is divided into four parts.

Part I (Chapter 1-4). Basic Principles.

This part explains the origin and history of astronomy and astrophysics, and the basic physical principles behind astrophysics: mechanics, relativity, optics, telescopes, quantum mechanics, atomic theory, and thermodynamics.

Part II (Chapter 5 - 10). Stars.

This part discuss stars as a basic constituents of our universe. Starting with the Sun as an example, the book goes with the energy generations and physical mechanism behind stars, birth, life, and death of stars, star classifications, stellar clusters, and binary stars.

Part III (Chapter 11 - 16). Galaxies and Cosmology.

This part starts with discussing materials between stars in our Galaxy, then our own Galaxy the Milky Way, further galaxies outside Milky Way, an introduction to Einstein's concepts of gravitation, cosmology, and ends with the Big Bang theory as the current Standard Model of Cosmology.

Part IV (Chapter 17 - 20). The Solar System and Life.

This part discuss the Solar System and the Planets, origins of the Solar System, and finally: the origin of life on Earth, and later the Life and Intelligence in our Universe. In my opinion, not much astronomy/astrophysics book discuss this subject, and in this sense this book make itself clearly stands out among the other.

Although it's 20 years now after the original publication, about 90% of the material are still relevant and interesting.
I personally suggest that Shu take a thorough revision and include some latest results on astrophysics in his book:
the dark energy and cosmic expansion, cosmic microwave background anisotropy, quark stars, extrasolar planets, large extra-dimensional particle theory, genetic engineering etc.
This would certainly bring the book back up-to-date for the 21st century.

I, without doubt, heartily recommend this book for all of you who are interested in astronomy and astrophysics, whatever background you have. A special recommendation is for physics student who wants to do astronomy in grad school but never take any astronomy/astrophysics courses. By buying, reading, and studying this book alone, combined with a mastery of upper-level undergraduate physics (analytical mechanics, thermodynamics & stat phys, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and math methods), I believe you will be ready for your grad-level astrophysics courses and even may have some advantages due to your physics background.

This book should be titled "Introduction to the physics of astrophysics". As such it is excellent. I used it for many years in an intermediate astrophysics course. The only problem with it is that it is dated in parts (no mention of helio-and astro-seismology for instance), though it is current well into 1982.

It would be of great benefit to physics education and to astrophysics education at the intermediate level if Prof. Shu would bring out an updated edition!

I have owned The Physical Universe for 10 years. While the book is out of date in many ways, it still serves as an excellent overview of many of the basic concepts that astronomers need to learn at the undergraduate level.

The book starts with a basic introduction to physical concepts such as dynamics, thermodynamics, and relativity, then proceeds to overview many of the fundamental concepts about stars, the interstellar medium, galaxies, cosmology, planets, and life in that order. At some times, the book's organization seems a bit eccentric, especially with the last chapters, which stray away from astronomy too much to be used in an astronomy undergraduate class. The book was written so that it could be used with students at various educational levels, so the book uses both written descriptions and mathematics to explain various astronomical concepts. Unfortunately, students without a strong background in mathematics will not benefit from the book as much. The problems, distributed throughout the text of the chapters, are very good at walking students through deriving mathematical equations; I myself consider problem sets I wrote for these problems to be reference material that is as important as the text itself.

The Physical Universe is good for understanding many of the basic concepts of astronomy. I still use this book to look up simple equations, such as magnitude and redshift equations. Nonetheless, the book is out of date. Important new science, especially many space-based observations by IRAS, Hubble, Chandra, ROSAT, and COBE, are missing. New fields of study, such as extrasolar planets, deep-field cosmology, and ultraluminous and luminous infrared galaxies, are unmentioned. The eccentric structure of this book also makes it a bit odd to learn out of or to find information in. Nonetheless, the book is a standard textbook in undergraduate astronomy education, and the structure and material in other books often follows the structure Shu has laid out in this book. I therefore rate this book highly for astronomy undergraduate students (as well as for astronomy graduate students and professionals), but I also recommend considering alternative introductory textbooks as well.

This is THE book that you want if you are starting out as an experimental physicist.

It includes key information on optics, electronics, vacuum techniques, machining,...

The information in here is the "lore" that you often only learn after working in a
lab for many years; its not taught in school.

Every graduate student in experimental physics should get this book on their first
day in the lab. I don't know how to say it any stronger than that.

I have a library of nearly 500 books on optics and this falls in the top 5. But this book not only covers optics (theoretical and practical, lens design to thin-film deposition), it also include topics such as vacuum physics (better than standard texts such as Harris), electronic design and mechanical design considerations.
Any inventor, systems engineer and instrument builder must have a copy of this book.

I recently purchased the updated edition of this book, after having owned the previous edition for many years. It is concise, well-written, expertly illustrated and thoroughly referenced.

The book covers a number of areas, all of which I've had occasion to use in my career as a materials scientist and chemist. The book is aimed at the practical aspects of design, construction and use of apparatus, primarily what might be termed "physics apparatus", but the principles may be applied to many scientific fields. It provides sufficient theory and mathematics necessary for an understanding of the designs, as well as pointing out common pitfalls.

When I am designing and building equipment this book is never out of reach.

excellent

this is a great book to design and build instruments. It will give you a quick background on pretty much every thing you need to know for instrumentation. I'm a physicist by training, but I realized that when it comes to build stuff, there are many gaps in my 'tech' expertize. This book helps me fill those gaps.
LLG

An excellent book for anyone starting to learn celestial navigation. It provides sufficient theory to explain the basics without baffling anyone able to understand simple arithmetic and geometry. This is the best book on this subject that I have read to date.

Before crossing the Atlantic in 1978 on my 22' sailboat, I read many books on celestial navigation and became convinced that it was an inpenetrable subject and then, on reflection, I realized that that could not be so as so many navigators had had less geometry etc than me. I figured the authors did not really know what they were talking about. And then I came across Prof. Blewett at the Boston Museum of Science, teaching on 10 Wednesday evenings. After the first lecture, on the noon sight, she said, if you your boat is going faster than 20 kts then you don't have to come back for more. That is all you need. She was absolutely right. But I did continue -- I took the course so I could do the fun-and-games of star sights too. I can now teach her course in 45 minutes.

Celestial navigation, like knots and splices and reading maritime charts and tide tables, is one of the essential sailing skills. Whether you are a daysailer, weekender, blue water cruiser or lone circumnavigator, there WILL come a time when the GPS quits, the Loran won't work, and you're going to say, "Where the &$@!* am I?". If you haven't learned celestial nav at that point you had better be a real quick study or have hired a good estate planning lawyer.

But assuming that Clarence Darrow Dershowitz Kunstler Belli Nizer, Esq. isn't in your crew, Mary Blewitt's book is a good thing to have. Brief, concise, and Ptolemaically simple to understand, Blewitt takes the hocus-pocus out of asking the heavens for directions. The difficulty with learning celestial nav isn't so much the math (as most people want to believe) as it is that modern man is SO far out of touch with the natural world that looking at the night sky is like looking at---something dark and mysterious. However, add a few very basic, easy-to-grasp concepts to your skill set and your Sunfish will suddenly become the Santa Maria.

Knowing celestial navigation will help you to sail anywhere and, even better, to know where you are when you get there. To that end, this book is an invaluable learning tool.

An excellent and clearly written book.
Easy to follow and understand.
A must for anyone interested in this subject.
Written by an expert for both beginners and experts.
I am delighted I purchased it.

This is a neat little book to read if you're serious about finding your position without the benefit of GPS. It's well written and the computations required are basically only addition and subtraction. You can practice using a GPS instrument to check your sights. (What you will find is that you need a lot of practice to get even close!)