As a boy growing up in the 50s and 60s, I could not have imagined a book as informative, beautiful, and lavish as this atlas of the universe. Then, any books on space pretty much stopped with some fuzzy photos of the planets, a discussion of the phases of the moon, and some galaxy photos from the Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar. Now comes this incredibly illustrated book with actual photos of the great moons surrounding the gas giants, Hubble photos of galaxies out to 13 billion light years away, an intelligent and lively text written to the educated layman, and easy-to-follow star charts prepared by the brilliant Will Tirion. Anyone from 8 to 80 will be captivated by the text and illustrations. Try this: Pick up this book and put it on your lap during one of your favorite TV programs. Pretty soon you'll have no idea what the program is about, and you won't care. Get it!
Perfect
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
This book is loaded with maps, geology, space exploration history, georgeous pictures, graphs, charts, star maps, (whew!) I can go on and on. It is much more than a standard coffee table book, all looks and no meat. Plenty to read here. This would make a perfect gift for any reader from grade school to graduate school who has looked up and wondered about what it out there. Highly recommended, at almost any price.
Coffee Table Book, Deluxe!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I just purchased this book -- saw it and had to have it. Over 300 pages of pure joy for the amateur astronomer. It is a large book (I mean BIG) and has some of the latest pictures from space probes, the Mars lander project, and the Hubble space telescope. Even people that are not that interested in astronomy take this book and drop out of the conversation for a couple hours as they page through it. One of the great features are the layman's terms used to describe astronomical language. Just makes it more user friendly in my opinion. This, along with a telescope would make a wonderful Christmas package for a budding astronomer!
Absolutely great
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
This book is amazing especially for the price. I absolutely love this book! It's 304 pages packed full of so much information and it's all pretty thorough. There are LOTS and LOTS of pictures in addition to Dr. Garlick's well written descriptions. It begins with the inner solar system and works it way out to beyond the Milky Way. Finally, there are maps to show you where to look and when for constellations and than there is some small information about each constellation after. At the back they give universal records which is rather interesting if you ask me. Even if your vocabulary isn't that extent there is a glossary in the back to aid you. If you're not interested so much in the facts of planets and whatnot there are plenty of pictures to captivate you. If you have ANY passion for astronomy or things of that nature I would definitely recommend this book. When I seen this book I KNEW I had to have it. Enjoy ^_^
The BEST astronomy text...
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
A wonderful book...Excellent layout and full of beautiful photographs. Covers the entire universe in an easy to follow format which conveys an enormous amount of information. Also has excellent star charts for backyard astronomers. I would recommend this book as the best source of information on astronomy for the beginning backyard astronomer or the armchair astronomer.
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