Customer Reviews

The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History

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A collection of 36 Gingerich articles that appeared in various magazines in the 1970's and 80's, all with a brief introduction by Gingerich. This collection is immensely entertaining, as he tackles such issues as Ptolemy's attempts to explain the motions of Mercury to the discovery of the Milky Way's spiral structure. Every essay is meticulously researched and will present a rich source for the amateur historian of astronomy and science.

Being a collection of 36 magazine columns, The Great Copernicus Chase doesn't "read". Each chapter is completely independent, ready to be studied when you need or want information on its subject.

But that information is thorough, clearly explained, and scholarly. There are high quality illustrations with detailed captions. It's printed on heavy coated stock, a keeper.

For example, consider Chapter 17 titled "Fake astrolabes." Gingerich explains how astrolabes work and shows detailed photographs of several. He points out what distinguishes a genuine from a fake. Finally, he offers suggestions for further reading. It's about 6-1/2 pages in length (this chapter) and can be read in 10 minutes. But if you were considering purchasing an "old" astrolabe, it could save you hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars. I tried searching the internet for comparable information, unsuccessfully.

Other chapters deal with subjects like: the zodiac, Stonehenge, Islamic astronomy, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, comets, eclipse paths, nebula, planets, the Milky Way, and Einstein.

This book is an incredible mix of great story-telling and superb teaching. He has selected some fascinating topics, and manges to explain the astronomy behind it very well. His writing is so good that I even enjoyed some of the chapters that I didn't think I was going to be interested in!

One good way to judge somebody is to see what they say about something you (think) you know something about. Gingerich always adds new insight to topics that I thought I was familiar with already. One of my favorite examples is the cola-can universe when discussing Stonehenge. Read it for yourself!