Customer Reviews

Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, and Folklore

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In my book, "Astronomical Symbols on Ancient and Medieval Coins", I devote an entire chapter to comets that were depicted on medieval coinage as signs of divine right to sovereignty. Several other chapters also refer to the use of cometary symbols on coins as a part of in-depth discussions of various sovereigns.

I have a Ph.D. in astronomy with my thesis dealing with long period cometary orbits. As part of my numismatic research, I supplemented my own knowledge with that of several other sources, and found Yeomans' book to be especially valuable.

I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in reading about historical comets.

Marshall Faintich

Comets where first discovered way back in the time of such scientific scholars like Aristotle and Ptolemy. The book Comets was written by Donald K. Yeomans. In the book he tells you the history on comets and how they have been and are being discovered in space. He also describes the different views of the scientists of the time on comets. An example of a wacky thought of comets was by Aristotle as he thought that comets had something to do with meteorology.
The author also describes how comets impacted societies and time periods. Suck as how Newton viewed the comets of 1607,1618,1652,1664 and 1665. He tied this info into his theory of a heliocentric universe. This book tells you facts on comets also like how Halley's Comet returns roughly about every 70 years. I didn't really enjoy this book because of the fact I am not a big reader and it is basically a book of facts. The book on comets is really a giant fact book compiled for studies. I would recommend this book if you where going to do any type of project or paper on comets but I would not recommend it for the casual reader.