Customer Reviews

Saturn: A New View

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.'

This book fully deserves five stars! It contains 147 photographs, of which 136 are showing Saturn, its rings and its moons. Almost all photographs are in color and the quality of reproduction is excellent, with much detail. Reproduction quality is in fact unequalled by any astronomy book I read.

A total of 21 photographs cover a full one and a half or two (generously sized) pages, another 52 photographs cover one full page. Also included are 15 photographs of Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn, of which 7 are taken by the Huygens-probe during its descent in the atmosphere of Titan.

What I like is that each photo comes with a short explanation of what is visible. In this respect the book is more informative then the book "Beyond, Visions Of The Interplanetary Probes". There are also about 47 pages of quite readable and entertaining text.

I have viewed plenty pictures of Saturn and its moons on internet. But although I have a good quality 19 inch flat-screen monitor, the photos in the book are much more vivid and contain much more detail. The splendor of the Saturn system really comes to life. This book is highly recommended!

Lovett's Saturn book is a tribute to the Cassini mission science team in images. The visualizations tell so much about the new knowledge now being acquired from the spacecraft in orbit of the planet. While the book is short on scientific detail, it is not designed to be a scientific treatise. It will take years to digest what is now being witnessed. The many Saturnian moons hold so much new knowledge yet to be understood. The images only begin to tell the story but each is worth seeing while the experts struggle to explain their meaning. I HIGHLY recommend this book to the astronomer and the lay person alike. It is well worth every penny to share in the spellbinding images contained on nearly every page with a brief text description. This is a display of The Lord of the Rings!

For me this is a superb collection of images and text relating to our more "up to the minute" knowledge of the ringed planet and it's accompanying constellation of moons and moonlets, the slightly oversized format is ideal for viewing this style of photography, in that it allows you to get some grasp of the scope and scale involved in the outer planets. We are given a window out of science fiction into the more breathtaking realm of natural beauty. More dazzling to the eye than Jupiter, Saturn captures the imagination for me like no other world and this book shares the amazing images beamed back to us from nearly unimaginable distances and makes the unfamilier seem all the more majestic and awe inspiring. If you are a fan of astronmical photography, the Cassini space probe or just have an interest in the raw beauty of science and exploration, this book is a must have.

For anyone who is interested in astronomy, especially when it relates to the planets in our solar system, this is a must have. The book beautifully describes and illustrates this elegant planet, providing detailed photos of it's body, rings and moons. I purchased this as a gift for my boyfriend and he absolutely LOVES it!

This book is full of wonderful images and information on the stunning Cassini mission. I could only dream of seeing such images when I was a kid caught up in the space program in the 50s and 60s. I think about how much the great pioneers, from Galileo to Carl Sagan, would have loved these images. There have been many more extraordinary images sent back from Cassini since this book was published, so I beg the authors to follow up with a second edition!

This book presents some very beautiful views of the Saturnian system as captured by the Casinni Spacecraft. It also provides some inciteful essays detailing the design, construction and operation of the spacecraft as well as the physics of the planet itself, its atmosphere and fascinating ring system and moons.

I'm glad they were able to make a book out of all the pictures they took, they are amazing and worth appreciating. The book is way cheeper than the cost of getting the photos, probes of this kind cost millions of dollars and don't always succeed, this is a true treasure.