Astronomy: a Visual Guide

Science News, July 31, 2004

ASTRONOMY: A Visual Guide MARK A. GARLICK

Novice astronomers seeking an all-in-one reference to the heavens will find it here. Garlick considers how people from the Stone Age to the modern day have viewed the night sky. The author, who is an astrophysicist and an accomplished science writer, pens vignettes that explain, for instance, why prehistoric people might have notched stones with images resembling the phases of the moon. Most of the book details elements of our solar system, as well as asteroids, comets, dark matter, and wormholes. Hundreds of color images, captured by equipment ranging from common binoculars to the Hubble Space Telescope, add dimension to these words. A large part of the book provides color star charts--and directions for using them--for each month of the year in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Other at-a-glance elements include a glossary, time lines, and fact files detailing eclipses and meteor showers and other sky happenings. Firefly, 2004, 303 p., color photos/illus., hardcover, $29.95.