Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy

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This is astronomy in a very big nutshell. This tome starts off with a very brief history of astronomy then it explores the universe from the inside out.

Early chapters deal with the sun, planets and the interstellar medium. Terrestrial planet descriptions include gorgeous topographies, volcanic and techtonic activity and internal structures. Chapters on gas giants include rings, clouds and magnetospheres. All satellites receive the same attention to detail as the planets. This book is thorough!

A salient point is this atlas is its treatment of the HR diagram--the Rosetta stone of astronomy. If you know the HR diagram you know a big chunk of astronomy. This book teaches you all about it in page after page of beautiful prints and pictures.

Later chapters deal with stellar evolution, galactic structure, quasars and finally cosmology. From nebulae to black holes to the debate on extra-terrestrial life this book covers it all!

The best thing about this atlas is that anyone can pick it up and read it. True, it's more than just a bunch of pretty pictures. It's technical but not TOO technical. It's meant for serious astronomers as well as someone just plain interested in space stuff.

Visually stunning as well as topically complete this is quite simply the best book on astronomy I have ever seen. You won't be disappointed.

This book covers the entire range of the subject, from the Earth to the Universe and all in between. It is well illustrated with many supporting topic boxes containing more detailed explainations of the underlying physics and chemistry. The topics are well ordered and explained. My only complaint is it is a very large book making it difficult to curl up with, but if it were not big, the photographs would not be as stunning. I pick this book up often and spent many hours exploring the Universe with it

Beuatiful pictures, but rather scientific/technical book, per item articles. An amateur who has read Hawkins, Griffin, Davies etc (like me) can understand about 50 % of the written part. No atlas !