Customer Reviews

Astronomy Through the Ages - The Story of the Human Attempt to Understand the Universe

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Sir Robert Wilson is a prominent British astronomer, who has contributed significantly to the booming development of astronomy in the second half of the 20th century. His book has arisen out of lecture courses in the University of London, designed to convey some knowledge of, and a feeling for, the way research is done in the science of astronomy. He explicitly aims at presenting his subject without any mathematical formulas. He even dispenses with diagrams: the pictures, several of which are in colour, are for illustration, not for supporting an argument.

Wilson succeeds in bringing out the fascinating story of man's exploration of the universe around him: Eratosthenes' simple, but surprisingly accurate estimate of the size of the earth, Aristarchus' elegant proof of the distance to the moon, and after the Copernican revolution, the gradual realisation of the enormous distances to the outer planets and the "fixed" stars. Finally, the mind-boggling 20th century findings,that the universe contains millions upon millions of galaxies of the size of our own Milky Way, not to speak of other structures of different kinds and ages. Further, that it is much more complex, dynamic, and unpredictable than the ancients thought it was. Wilson tells the story with great clarity and in sufficient detail to make the non-mathematical reader feel that he has at least been given the chance to grasp the nature of the arguments of the astronomers. It is an outstanding achievement.

Sir Robert Wilson is a prominent British astronomer, who has contributed significantly to the astounding development of astronomy in the second half of the 20th century. His book has arisen out of lecture courses in the University of London, designed to convey to people with a background in the humanitites some knowledge of, and especially a feeling for, the way research is done in the science of astronomy. He explicitly aims at presenting his subject without any mathematical formulas. He even dispenses with diagrams: the pictures, several of which are in colour, are for illustration, not for supporting an argument.

Wilson succeeds in bringing out the fascinating story of man's exploration of the world around him: Eratosthenes' simple, but surprisingly accurate estimate of the size of the earth, Aristarchus' elegant measurement of the distance to the moon, and after the Copernican revolution, the gradual realisation of the enormous distances to the outer planets and the "fixed" stars. Finally, the mind-boggling 20th century findings of the 20th century, that the universe contains millions upon millions of galaxies of the size of our own Milky Way, not to speak of other structures of different kinds and ages. Further, that it is much more complex, dynamic, and unpredictable than the ancients thought it was. Wilson tells the story with great clarity and in sufficient detail to make the non-mathematical reader feel that he has at least been given the chance to grasp the nature of the arguments of the astronomers. It is an outstanding achievement.

I found this book disappointing. It is a history of astronomy written by possibly a very good astronomer---but not a good historian. He is given to sweeping statements what are unsupported, and often unsupportable. For instance, he blames Christianity for the fall of Rome, and believes it has always been institutionally antagonistic to science; these contentions are at best very simplistic, and arguably quite wrong. As far as the science goes, I found his explanation of the seasons simply confusing. There are far better histories of astronomy available, in particular "The Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy", which I highly recommend.

A very coperhensive book about the history of astronomy.It is well written,the physical term use in astronomy are explain in some accurate detailed.WILSON made a very bright connection between physics theories and astronomy.To me that i am familiar with astronomy the book renew many facts.

Book tells a spectacular view of what Astronomy is about