The Sun

by Michael Carlowicz and Steele Hill

Book Overview

As far back as you can go in history, the Sun sits at the centre of the human story. This story is told not just by the daylight, but by the night sky; not just by its full brilliance but also its reflected, distorted, and bent light; and not just from Earth, but from the edge of the solar system.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810955229
• ISBN13: 9780810955226
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: ABRAMS
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 6.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Don't just "know" our sun....be ASTOUNDED by it!

Forget spectroscopy and formulae. Forget myth and poetry. SEE the monstrous forces at work in the corona, on the surface. Especially in ultraviolet and x-ray photos shown here in this amazing little book. Just...drop to your knees in awe; there's no other phrase for it Our terrifying star is JUST BIG ENOUGH to keep us toasty without toasting our vulnerable little butts into oblivion. The sun should be the first weird thing a kid falls in love with, and this book will do the trick. Hand this to a child and watch a lifelong obsession begin. Hand it to an adult, and watch their mouths twist with fear and pleasure. Why on earth don't we just hand PHOTOS to schoolkids? A picture is so much more efficient. This little hand-size book contains photos of x-ray, ultraviolet and infrared images of sunspots, granules of plasma, the corona, huge prominences of charged plasma arcing along magnetic field lines, and many other wonders---all with small blurbs to keep you up to speed. But let the photos do the work. It'll blow you away. Best thing I got for Christmas this year!

Tiny book of beautiful big images

Such a small book! Such a big subject! The Sun is a fascinating and beautiful book, and it is the perfect size to take around with you or leave in your bathroom/coffee table/etc. Each chapter explores a basic facet of the Sun-sunspots, aurora, flares, magnetic storms-and is filled with beautiful and stunning imagery from photographers and satellites.

You will be frightened

Ever wonder about the big glowing thing above you that seems to be all over the place all the time during the day? Wonder no more. Holy @#%*!! Why isn't everyone flipping out at how amazing the sun is!? And that we have mind blowingly close, beautiful, evil, haunting pictures of it?! Seriously, there is this thing that's setting off its own arsenal of countless numbers of hydrogen bombs all at once and on itself, and we're constantly spinning around it, and there is a book that give you a beyond crazy close look at it. If this book had come out 100 years ago it would be hailed as the most amazing thing mankind had ever seen. Now it just sort of sits on a bookshelf in the astronomy section. Get with it people, and go stare at the sun.

Beautiful images

That book is about the sun, but the sun is so much more than just the sun. The sun gives us amazing Northern Lights, sparkling solar coronas, mysterious green flashes, wonderful halos, pillars and so on, and so on. The book has inspiring pictures of all these phenomenas. One also will see the pictures of prominences and flares. I really recommend that awesome book.

Awesome Pictures

This little book has amazing pictures of the Sun. Great little conversation piece for the coffee table...especially if you've worked on some of the missions that took the pictures.