Customer Reviews

The Handy Space Answer Book (Handy Answer Books)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book at the Aerospace Museum in the Smithsonian in Washington. It is a fun book to refer to now and again.

The format of the book is question/answer. The chapter topics include: the universe, galaxies and stars, our solar system, the Earth and its moon, observation and measurement, observation facilities, space exploration agencies and tools, technology in space, and humans in space.

I especially enjoyed brushing up on my knowledge of space exploration. This book covers all the major space programs up through the International Space Station. The section on the universe is also equally interesting. The book reviews basic laws and the scientists behind them.

This book is very educational. It is useful for brushing up on basic knowledge for adults, and it would make a great gift for those just learning about science and space exploration. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I enjoy this book. I wish I bought on Amazon.com. I bought it at the Discovery Channel Store and it is GREAT! It answers every question I have or will have about space. It goes in depth. I wish it had weblinks, color pictures, hardcover, and an editor. This book has typos and you can tell. Look at 'G' in the Index.

Great for all purposes dealing with space! It makes learning about our solar system fun, and is great for all ages to understand complicated related issues of space and other objects in our solar system!

I was expecting a dry, dull book, and I found the opposite. This book is very interesting, especially the parts about the solar system and universe (i wish there was more)! The section about land observatories was long and boring, but I guess they needed to put it in.

An informative, well written book covering the most frequently asked questions about space.

This book is a decent intoductory reference about space, its exploration, and some of the people who have influenced our understanding thereof.

Information is organized by general topic (The Universe, objects outside our solar system, the solar system itself, space exploration, etc.); each topic is then divided alphabetically by subtopic (Pulsars, Quasars, Red Giants; Jupiter, Saturn, etc.). These subtopics are then treated to a series of questions and their answers. In effect, the book is an extended FAQ similar to those found for various topics on the web. I find this to be an interesting approach to the printed format.

However, I have found the book to be unclear at times and unneccessarily sketchy (perhaps "too concise" would be more fair) about many details. I frequently want more information than is provided when using the book to clarify a term or concept. For example, the section on Red Giants lists an entry which is titled in such a way as to imply that it will explain the mechanism by which Red Giants vary in their cycle of brightness. Instead, the entry explains the life course of the Red Giant phase of a star's life without information on why it varies in a yearly cycle from bright to dim. In fact, the variability mechanism of a Red Giant is *never* explained by the book, despite this information being present for other Variable Star types.

Compared the length of the book, the amount of information inside is limited. In fact, if the text was not printed in such a large typeface, I imagine the book would become a small volume, and could possibly be modified into a candidate for a "pocket" book. The large page format is not used for a wealth of diagrams, either, as the book is lacking in explanatory illustration, something one might expect in a reference work. In effect, the book feels physically "inflated" to me, perhaps in the interest of seeming meatier. In all honesty, I might have been less inclined to purchase it if it had been a small volume, so this approach seems to have worked; however, if it were a small or pocket edition, I might have been more satisfied with the amount of content.

Finally, as one reviewer has already mentioned, the book is not well edited, with typos and grammatical errors throughout. The entire project, in fact, feels a tad rushed, as if more content and thorough editing were eschewed in an effort to get to market.

All in all, I found the book to be a good start *on a more complete volume.* In other words, I would have liked to see more development of the content in a more complete work. Nonetheless, it is a decent addition to my reference library, especially at the price, although it often leaves me wanting more.