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Just how insignificant is the planet Earth? Just how big is the concept, "to the power of 10"? This really neat "movie" starts a mere 10 million light years away from Earth, where the Milky Way galaxy is just visible as a spiral, and zooms you in -- one power of 10 at a time -- to the quark level, and tells you what you're looking at each step of the way. Awesome, in any sense of the word. From This is True for 21 December 2003 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Roger W. Sinnott List Price: $19.95 Amazon Price: $13.57  By: I.M. LevittRoy K. Marshall List Price: $12.00 Amazon Price: $9.60 Editorial Review: Designed with the beginner in mind and useful to anyone interested in astronomy. Star Maps for Beginners is the classic guide to viewing and understanding the heavens. Its superb maps -- drawn in the shape of two crossed ellipses -- provide the reader with a unique perspective on the sky and have been widely acknowledged as the easiest system yet devised for locating any constellation at any time of the year. Now revised for the 1990s, with updated planet charts and a new section on spotting meteor showers. Star Maps for Beginners includes: 12 complete maps -- one for each month -- showing the positions of the constellations viewed from every direction a synoptic table that shows how to choose the proper map for use at any time special tables that give approximate positions of the planets for the years 1992 through 1997 the most up-to-date overview of the solar system available today the latest facts about each of the planets -- orbit, size, atmosphere, internal structure, climate, and terrain a full chapter on the history and development of the constellations, and the ancient legends and mythological lore surrounding them a special section on meteors -- how they originate and when and where to spot them. Initially published in 1942 and now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Star Maps for Beginners has sold more than 450,000 copies.  By: Mary Blewitt List Price: $12.95 Amazon Price: $10.36 Editorial Review: There is deep mystery and profound satisfaction in finding your position on earth by reference to the sun, moon, and stars--not to mention profound relief when the GPS receiver stops working in mid-passage. That is why knowledge of celestial navigation is still a rite of initiation, and its practice still a favorite pastime among serious cruisers. That this edition of Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen should appear 44 years after the first British edition and 27 years after its first publication in the U.S. is eloquent testimony to the author's clear, concise explanation of a difficult skill. Through those years, Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen has been the best-known, best-loved primer on the subject throughout the English-speaking world. It successfully teaches sailors who have been demoralized by bigger books. It remains "the famous little book" on celestial navigation. Among other changes, this edition substitutes the Nautical Almanac for the Air Almanac, discusses the "short" tables based on H.O. 211, expands the discussion in a few areas, fine-tunes it in others, and shows how to advance a line of position for a running fix from sun sights. The only mathematics involved are straightforward addition and subtraction. Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen has spawned many imitators over the years, but it's still the best--with this new edition more than ever.  By: Robin KerrodCarole Stott List Price: $35.00 Amazon Price: $23.10 Editorial Review: The latest photos from Hubble's recent discoveries, with fascinating new and updated information. After 17 years, 25,000 astronomical targets and more than 700,000 images, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) continues to return images and data that amaze astronomers. Within the past few months alone, the Hubble has revealed a gold mine of just-formed star systems in the newborn Universe, provided detailed views of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter, and confirmed that monster black holes lurk at the center of galaxies. This brand new and updated edition features: 80 new full-color images A new introduction that reveals Hubble's future The data behind Pluto's recent demotion to non-planetary status Hubble's most important and fascinating new discoveries Explanations of how these new discoveries are revising scientific understanding of the Universe.New photographs reveal astonishing and previously unseen details of what once appeared only as gray blurs or dots on a star map. Examples include the Eagle Nebula and the birth of a star; newly formed stars blowing a cavity in the center of the Small Magellanic Cloud; colliding Antennae galaxies; and a massive galaxy just under assembly. Hubble transports readers beyond our solar system to galaxies millions -- even billions -- of light years away. These dramatic, unforgettable new images bring into sharp focus the ways in which the Universe is unfolding in new and astonishing ways. (200402) By: Stefan Seip List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: At first glance, the challenge of astrophotography may appear daunting. But not only are spectacular results possible, they are easy to learn with the step-by-step instructions provided in Stephan Seip's Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Cosmos. Today, amateurs can produce images that only twenty years ago a large professional observatory would have been proud of; and this book shows you how. Learn how to: Set up your camera for optimum results Focus your camera for razor-sharp images Take beautiful night shots with a simple compact digital camera, a tripod, and a telescope Use a DSLR camera to shoot the Sun, Moon, stars, star clusters, and nebulae through your telescope Get brilliant images of planets with a Webcam Capture remote galaxies with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera just like a pro Also included are lessons on the processing that is done in the "studio" after your shoot, including how to: Shoot RAW format images and improve them with calibration frames Take short exposures of faint deep-sky objects and combine them into a longer exposure Perform brightness, contrast, and color correction Make corrections to correct for vignetting and uneven field illumination Process your images for stunning results Equipment requirements for astrophotography range from nothing but a simple camera and tripod to a multi-thousand dollar computer controlled telescope equipped with a CCD auto-guider and separate guide-scope. Researching the best equipment for your needs is a task in itself. Seip helps you to sort out which cameras are best for the various celestial objects, what to look for when buying a camera, and what accessories you really need. The rewards of this fascinating hobby, as the author says, "Grants you unforgettable hours under the night sky; it allows you to produce aesthetically rewarding and lasting results. Astrophotography is a love-match between physics, photography, art, and digital image processing. It is exciting!" |
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