General Astronomy Bookstore

ASTRONOMY BOOK REVIEWS:

The New Solar System
J. Kelly Beatty, Carolyn Collins Petersen & Andrew Chaikin (editors)
Cambridge University Press 1999
Book review by Stephen Tuell

The once sketchy view of the solar system is being expanded, and repainted every day colors from a much larger palette and detail beyond anything seen
before. Here is a beautiful book with photographs, artists renditions, and
more to bring the new solar system in focus for anyone who knows the basics
of how the physical world works. The new picture of the solar system portrayed here avoids jargon and mathematical sophistication without sacrificing
accuracy. As Albert Einstein said, "Science should make things as simple as
possible and not one bit simpler." Here is a book that meets that criterion.

The authors share new understanding of the origins of the solar system as well
as the evidence supporting this developing model. The recent explorations
of the inner planets and the moon are the subject of individual chapters. The
atmospheres of planets those planets that have an atmosphere are compared along with discussion of how each came to have its unique composition.

Also discussed is descriptions of the "moons" of Jupiter and Saturn, as well
as comets, asteroids and those pieces of them that fall to earth, meteorites.
Sophisticated reasoning about the origins and history of these objects over
eons of time is explained with rare clarity.

Life on Other Worlds:
The 20th-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate
Steven J. Dick
Cambridge University Press 1998
Book Review by Stephen Tuell

Steven Dick, has in this book, brought to the intelligent, non-specialist the essence of his, "The Biological Universe:The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science." The book is not cluttered with internal
references, but does have an annotated bibliography.

Life on Other Worlds recapitulates the history of serious, open-minded debates about the possibility of life on other worlds. He sheds light on the course that those debates and scientific studies to test the hypotheses
generated by them. Most readers will find his opinions on the social, cultural and religious currents that have orchestrated these inquiries. Dick's thoughts on the findings by unmanned spacecraft on several planets and their satellites are balanced and fascinating to me.

SETI, the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is reviewed here, as are UFO's, and reports of human encounters with alien beings.

Published in 1998, Life on Other Worlds is just dated enough to be in our recent memory and old enough to be viewed in light of more recent discoveries about the questions scientists knew enough to ask at that time.

Other books about the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

• Looking for Life in the Universe: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Ellen Jackson
• Lonely Minds in the Universe: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Giancarlo Genta
• SETI 2020: A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  R. D. Ekers
• We Are Not Alone: The Continuing Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Revised Edition Walter Sullivan

And my favorite SETI fiction book by a real scientist:

• Contact By Carl Sagan.
  

1000 Facts About Space ; Pam Beasant
365 Starry Nights : An Introduction to Astronomy for Every Night of the Year ; Chet Raymo
Astronomy Projects (Isaac Asimov's New Library of the Universe) ; Frank Reddy, et al
A Book About Planets and Stars ; Betty P. Reigot
The Young Oxford Book of Astronomy (Young Oxford Books) ; Simon Mitton, et al
Earth and Space (Starting Point Science Series) ; Sophy Tahta, et al
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System ; Bruce Degen, Joanna Cole
My First Book of Space : Developed in Conjunction With Nasa ; Rosanna Hansen

Astromomy Guide Books

Amateur Astronomer's Handbook ; J. B. Sidgwick
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide ; Alan Dyer, Terence Dickinson
Burnham's Celestial Handbook : An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System Vol 1 ; Robert Burnham
The Cambridge Guide to the Constellations ; Michael E. Bakich
Cambridge Pocket Star Finder : A Month-By-Month Guide to the Night Sky
Exploring the Night Sky : The Equinox Astronomy Guide for Beginners ; Terrence Dickinson, Terence Dickinson

Black Holes

Black Hole Uniqueness Theorems (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics, 6) ; Markus Heusler;

Black Holes ; Alison Bullough, et al

Black Holes ; Nigel Henbest, et al

Black Holes : A Traveler's Guide ; Clifford Pickover

Black Holes : Gravitational Interactions (Oxford Mathematical Monographs) ; P. D. D'Eath

Black Holes : The Membrane Paradigm ; Richard H. Price, et al

Black Holes : The Membrane Paradigm ; Kip S. Thorne, et al

Black Holes and Other Space Phenomena (Young Observer) ; Philip Steele

Black Holes and the Universe ; Vitaly Kisin, Igor Novikov

Black Holes in Spacetime (Venture Books) ; Kitty Ferguson

Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars : The Physics of Compact Objects ; Stuart L. Shapiro

For Enthusiasts
Amateur Astronomer's Handbook ; J. B. Sidgwick

Astronomical Ccd Observing and Reduction Techniques (Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Vol 23) ; Steve B. Howell

Astronomical Observations : An Optical Perspective ; Gordon Walker, Grodon Walker

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia ; Stephen Maran

Astrophotography : An Introduction (Sky & Telescope Observer's Guides) ; H. J. P. Arnold

The Cambridge Eclipse Photograhy Guide : How and Where to Observe and Photograph Solar and Lunar Eclipses ; Jay M. Pasachoff, Michael A. Covington