Customer Reviews

Other Worlds: The Solar System And Beyond

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

 

 

Over the years, the National Geographic Society has produced many excellent books about the exploration of space such as Mars by Raeburn and Golembek and Orbit by Jay Apt. This time they have chosen some of the best photographs obtained from the various NASA probes to the planets and the Hubble space telescope. Most of the book is filled with many high quality photographs (all color) and includes only some supporting text. For this reviewer, the small amount of text was a nice bonus, since it increased my viewing pleasure. I found this book to be a good addition to my collection of space related books.

Approximately two-thirds of this book covers our sun, its planets and the minor objects like asteroids and comets. The book contains the latest photographs from the Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor and Galileo space probes as well as the many classic photographs taken during the early years of the space program. The final third of the book contains deep space photographs mostly taken by the Hubble telescope. These photographs examine many of the more famous deep sky objects, like the Eagle and Helix Nebulae, but also include numerous galaxies and super novae photographs. Again, the latest and highest quality photographs are shown here.

If you like a book that is filled with many high quality photographs of our solar system and deep sky objects, this book is for you.

This is another sumptuously produced book from the National Geographic Society. The text is a little "mickey-mouse" by my standards, but the photos, many from NASA planetary missions are Hubble, are beautifully reproduced and well worth the price of admission.

The book is divided into sections: inner planets, outer planets, and deep space, with text and photos (in that order) for each.
Nicely done and well worth browsing.

The book goes from the sun and the solar system, through galaxies and nebulas, up to the edges of the known universe, giving great and worthy images (and info) in each "station", all printed on a high quality paper, of course. Especially good are the images from the galaxies and nebulas. Those from the near planets I liked a bit less, and I've seen better ones elsewhere...
The text all the way is well written and enjoyable to read. It gives, in addition to the info about each object, some nice (but basic) introduction to astronomy in general - things such as how distance from stars is measured, how light coming from objects is analyzed, astronomy history etc...
However, as it covers the entire universe, it is, as you might think (considering it's size...), pretty basic - both the images and the info. It gives just a small (but good!) taste of everything, not going too deep anywhere.

All in all, it's an excellent book, but I think it'll be worthy to you only if you don't have many other astronomy books, since it's pretty basic.

This is a great book. Other worlds is for anybody that just loves to look at images of space. Easy reading, informative and thought provocing. It will be on my read often shelf!.

Although I started out rating this a "4", I changed my mind and gave it a "5", mainly because I found it for half price and also because some of these pictures are so marvelous that it's scary. You've never seen the Eagle or Helix nebulae like this before and some of the pictures within our own solar system give you a good idea of what it must be like if you're out there--scary. Away from Earth and in a desolate zone millions of miles away. Galaxies, star clusters, etc.. are so much more defined than the photographs of these wonders that come from Earth-based observatories. No atmospheric turbulence and also great photos from the greatest scope man has invented. Galileo would marvel at the photographs of Jupiter and its Moons, which he first discovered long ago. He sure didn't see them like this.

Very pleased with the swift delivery and the quality of the book. Excellent price. Thanks.