 Starting with basics such as Don't Give Up, Join an Astronomy Club, Safety First, and Stay Warm, the O'Reilly book, "Astronomy Hacks", progresses through topics such as choosing and caring for astronomical equipment, observing techniques, identifying objects, and using star charts.
It advances to building equipment and using a computer or PDA for observing. The book, written in a charming personal style, clearly demonstrates the husband-and-wife team's love for astronomy. Its information is interesting and valuable, whether you'll spend a bundle and get serious about astronomy, or will just head outside on a clear night to marvel at the glorious sky. Either way, read the book and you too will, as the authors describe,
...look at the Great Orion Nebula, for example, and realize that the light we see tonight began its journey about 1,550 years ago, when the Roman Empire was in its final days. Or we view the Andromeda Galaxy and realize that the photons striking our eyes left Andromeda about 2.9 million years ago, when early proto-humans were just coming down from the trees. And, if we look at the dim smudge of Andromeda and remember that that smudge is actually the light from nearly a thousand billion Suns,we wonder if someone there is looking back at us,wondering the same thing.
Astronomy Hacks
Robert Bruce Thompson & Barbara Fritchman Thompson
Publisher: O'Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-10060-4
Date of Review: 03-18-2007
Price $24.95
For an interesting companion to this book, check out my review of the Celestron Sky Scout Personal Planetarium.
This article from the CompuKISS Web site, www.compukiss.com, is copyrighted by Gabriel Goldberg. It may be reproduced, for single use,or by nonprofit organizations for educational purposes, with attribution to CompuKISS. It should be unchanged and this paragraph included. Please e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
when you use it, or for permission to excerpt or condense.
|
