A classic reference source for amateur astronomers before the era of mobile device apps and go-to telescopes. First published in 1910, this is the 15th edition from 1964. Very dated, but interesting to flip through and grasp some of the challenges faced by our astronomy predecessors as they searched the night sky for observing targets. |
Man’s landing on the moon was an enormous technological achievement, but it was only a small step into the vastness of space. This highly readable book invites enterprising amateurs of science to go along on an imaginary continuation of that journey, as successively larger and more venturesome steps are taken—beyond the moon to the sun and planets, to the stars and galaxies, to the outer limits of the known universe and of human knowledge.
The book examines along its route the structure and internal processes of the sun, the planets and their satellites, the comets and asteroids, Alpha Centauri, double and multiple stars, white dwarfs, red giants, neutron stars, novae and supernovae, the Magellanic clouds, the Andromeda nebula, globular clusters, the Seyfert galaxies, galactic explosions, quasars, the interpretation of the red shift as evidence that the universe is expanding, and the curvature of space-time, that finite but unlimited matrix of reality.
On July 20, 1969, near the end of a great decade of near-space exploration, a small craft called Eagle landed on the moon’s surface. As anyone who watched the televised broadcast of the landing might recall, the astronauts aboard Eagle were guided to their objective by a capable ground crew headed by Chris Kraft, whom his colleagues had long called “Flight.” Kraft was unflappable on the surface, but, as he writes in this memoir, the Eagle‘s landing had moments of drama that gave him pause, and that few outside NASA knew about–including baleful alarms from the ship’s on-board computer that warned of imminent disaster. For Kraft, frightening moments were part of his job as director of Mission Control. He encountered many of them in the early years of the space program, when failures were commonplace and all too often caused not by mechanics but by politics. We learn of many in Kraft’s pages. One such failure was the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch, about which Kraft thunders, “We should have beaten them….” |
A classic book on all things comet by renowned Australian comet hunter, David Seargent.
Learn where comets come from and their chemistry and structure. Also learn about many of the most famous comets of recent centuries
Author: Paul DicksonLearn all the details about the origin of Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Also learn how it triggered the space-race between the USSRS and the USA and how it shocked American scientists and politicians and wounded their pride. |
First published in 1971, this book provides a simple introduction to all the solar system planets, including Pluto. However published well before the discovery of exoplanets.