The Compact NASA Atlas of the Solar System (Hardcover)

by Ronald Greeley (Author), Raymond Batson (Author) "Following the launch of Sputnik 1, an armada of spacecraft was sent to the Moon and throughout the Solar System in the 1960s and 1970s..." (more)
Key Phrases: classical albedo feature, albedo name, attempted flyby, Solar System, Center Ion, Geological Survey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The spectacular NASA Atlas of the Solar System, which came out in 1997, was priced beyond the reach of many libraries. Here is a more affordable alternative, offering the same content in a smaller format. RBB
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Review
"Beautiful maps...and full-color illustrations..." Library Journal

"This spectacular atlas of the solar system is both an atlas and a brief history of astronomy...Recommended for all libraries, especially public and academic." Booklist

"An excellent collection of systematic maps, photographs, and overviews of planets and major satellites...It is unique in scope and its use of uniform formats and consistent scales...highly recommended." Library Journal

"Clear a tray in your atlas case for this magnificent tribute to four decades of space exploration...This authoritative, eye-popping resource will be invaluable to libraries." School Library Journal

"Planetary scientists Greeley and Batson have done an excellent job." NZ Science Monthly (Aug 98)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 410 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (November 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052180633X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521806336
• Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 9.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #650,216 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully done, good to excellent coverage, October 28, 2002

By	magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

As an amateur astronomer, my interest tends more to deep-sky objects rather than planetary astronomy, but I spent some time looking at this atlas, and it really is a striking catalog of our current knowledge of the solar system. The atlas contains beautiful closeups of every planet except Pluto, although the coverage for Venus isn't that extensive, but then since Venus is mostly clouds, I don't know how much would be served by that, unlike the cloud-cover of Jupiter, which shows many stable bands and also the pink and red spots. There are also maps of a number of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, allowing you to see their heavily marred and cratered surfaces, which are very reminiscent of Mercury or our moon.

The atlas only contains maps for the large Galileian satellites of Jupiter and the same for the larger, closer moons of Saturn, but I don't know if this is because of limitations in the spacecraft that took the photos or the distances involved from the spacecraft to the moons. The maps of Mars are perhaps the most interesting in terms of surface details, and features like the enormous, 17-mile high and 400-mile across volcano, Nix Olympica, and the great gorge on Mars, really stand out. Another thing that was interesting was the discovery of the first asteroid with its own small planet. The atlas features over 150 maps, 214 color illustrations and a gazetteer. Overall, this is a stunning and beautifully done atlas of the solar system, which, despite its not being cheap, should still be of interest to amateurs and professionals alike.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good reference but a few glaring flaws, July 10, 2002

By	Jason Perry (Tucson, AZ, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Compact NASA Atlas of the Solar System is a very good reference for those working with spacecraft. Spacecraft images don't come with names already on them and it is often difficult when looking at some MGS images which crater is which and what they are called. When it comes to most of the inner planets, and Saturnian, Uranian, and Neptunian moons, the coverage is quite good and very useful. However, I can't say the same for Venus and Jupiter's moons. While there is excellent coverage for Mars as far as number of sections, Venus is not covered as well even though we have similar scale maps. I agree with the authors that if the same scale was used for both, the Venus maps would take up a large number of pages. However, the same number of quadrants would have been nice. Secondly, the coverage of the Jovian moons is lacking. The maps are from the Voyager era and while that may not be as big of a problem for Ganymede or Callisto, it is a problem for Io and Europa. The coverage of Europa from Galileo has greatly improved over Voyager's coverage and an updated map would have been nice. Io's map is also from Voyager. The fact that much of the anti-jovian side has been covered in great detail by Galileo but it was not included in the atlas save a small image of that mosaic not incorporated into the map. in addition, surface changes in the 20 years between Voyager and Galileo have made the included map quite out of date.

Save those two flaws, it is a pretty good reference for those interested in the solar system.