Customer Reviews

Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe

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

 

 

This book, produced by the Smithsonian and the Space Telescope Science Institute, presents some the most famous photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope from the solar system to the edge of visible space. The large coffee table format of the book helps present these photographs in all their magnificence.

The book opens with a brief description of the telescope and its capabilities. Next, the book covers the solar system, then moves on to objects in the Milky Way, the individual galaxies, and finally the universe. In essence, this progression of photographs shows the reader how Hubble is looking backward in time to the big bang.

While the selected photographs are excellent and the large size of the book enhances their grandeur, sixty pages do not do justice to the many incredible photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This is a lovely collection of the best of the Hubble photographs that had been done at the time of publication. Although they have been seen many times, and in many different formats, this book puts them all together in one place. It's too bad that some of the more recent spectacular Hubble shots weren't included, but the author's deadline was probably the culprit; it wasn't as a result of deliberate omission. This is, perhaps, a "coffee table book", but unlike most books that fall into that category, this one is paperback and very affordable. I can't wait for Mark Voit to do a Volume 2!

The layout of the book was disappointing. Instead of being a coffee table book containing mostly the latest, prettiest photos, much space was wasted on perfunctory texts containing little new information to space buffs, and the layout of the pictures was poorly judged, in my opinion, with several oddly-angled pictures splayed across the pages. There were too few large-scale photos, and most had been published in popular magazines.

The book comes in two-versions. One is a paperback and the other is a hardback, which I own. I would definately call the hardback a coffee table book. Large format photos, in a book that opens nicely for great viewing

This is a good book of hubble shots but not what I was hoping to find. I think Cosmos book put out recently has better pics than this does. It does give information and stuf in it but it isn't all that comprehensive.

While this book is not a comprehensive account of everything the Hubble Telescope has revealed to us, it is a wonderful and quite inexpensive book, which belongs in the astronomy section of every school library in the country. The text is clear and concise, and the quality of the photographic reproductions is absolutely top-notch. What I love about the book the most, however, is how well it gives the reader a sense for the absolute vastness of space.