Saturn: A New View [Hardcover]

Laura Lovett (Author), Joan Horvath (Author), Jeff Cuzzi (Author), Kim Stanley Robinson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0810930900 | ISBN-13: 978-0810930902 | Edition: 1st Printing

After a journey of seven years and 2.2 billion miles, the spacecraft Cassini, with a probe named Huygens aboard, reached Saturn in July 2004, beginning a four-year tour to observe the remote planet, its rings, and its moons in depth. As a result of the spectacularly succesful Cassini-Huygens mission, photographs of astounding beauty have come streaming back to Earth, together with enough data to keep hundreds of scientists engrossed for decades. Reproduced here, in unprecedented detail and exquisite, high-quality format, are 150 of the best of those images, among them rings from the unlit side never visible from Earth and panoramas of the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

This breathtaking volume, including authoritative essays on the planetary system and the mission, reveals the planet, its ethereally beautiful rings, and its 40+ moons in ways never before seen or recorded.

“Astonishing, amazing, and personal.”
— Dr. David Livingston

Host, The Space Show

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laura Lovett has worked on several key space-related projects, including the award-winning Apollo 11 Collection. She lives in Larkspur, CA.

Joan Horvath spent 16 years at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she worked on the Cassini mission to Saturn. She lives in Pasadena.

Dr. Jeff Cuzzi has twice been awarded NASA’s Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He lives in the Palo Alto area.

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of America’s most celebrated science fiction writers and lives in Davis, CA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1st Printing edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810930900
• ISBN-13: 978-0810930902
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 11.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #838,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Astronomy & Space Science > Solar System

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Entirely Subjective Review, January 5, 2007

By 

Charles E. Kirby (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturn: A New View (Hardcover)

My disclaimers up front. First, I have worked for JPL for close to 20 years; half of my career (including currently and during the entire period these photos were taken) has been spent supporting Cassini directly or indirectly. So there is no way I can even pretend to have an objective perspective. Second, this is my personal review and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cal Tech, JPL or NASA.

I love this book. It is so exciting as one small cog working on a mission to see the fruits of my labor being so prominently and publicly displayed. I put out semi-regular "astropics" newsletters to a group of family, friends, and now friends of friends who similarly love astronomy and JPL's missions. If I were to compile my favorite pics out of the years that I have been doing this, many of my favorites would be ones included in this book. I highly recommend this book to any lover of astronomy, old and new to learn the latest that is being revealed by this wonderful mission.

Chuck Kirby
Cassini Spacecraft Systems Engineer

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular Imagery, October 27, 2006

By 

Rogera Sauterer (Pell City, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturn: A New View (Hardcover)

The planet Saturn has always facinated people with its yellowish cloud bands and spectacular rings. Now, thanks to the Cassini mission, we all have a ringside seat. This book compiles about 150 of the best Cassini images from Saturn and its moons, many in full color, along with a brief synopsis of the nature of the planet and its moons. Although thin on information, this is a lovely cofee-table book. The images are nothing short of spectacular and are printed with very high quality. Anybody with the slightest interest in Saturn should get this book. It is one of the best photographic books about the planets around.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Language Was Not Made for Saturn, November 10, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saturn: A New View (Hardcover)

On the 30th of July, 1610 Galileo wrote: 'I discovered another very strange wonder, which I should like to make known to their Highnesses . . . , keeping it secret, however, until the time when my work is published . . . . the star of Saturn is not a single star, but is a compsite of three, which almost touch each other, never change or move relative to each other, and are arranged in a row along the zodiac, the middle one being three times larger than the lateral ones, and they are situated in this form: oOo.'

His telescope was simply inadequate in power and in optical quality to resolve the rings as anything but blobs to the side of the planet.

Centuries later when I was studying astronomy in college we had much better pictures. We knew the outlying 'bodies' were really the rings.

Now, mere decades later we have been there. Not physically, but mankind has sent his spacecraft, with sensors, with cameras unimaginably improved over those of the past.

This is a book primarily of pictures of such quality that they are astounding. I cannot describe just how good they are. As Kim Stanley Robinson says in his opening paragraph: 'Our language was not made for Saturn.'