Author: Tony Buick
By Springer

Good advice from starting from page 1, 2007-04-22
What I really like about this book is that on the first night of picking it up I was able to take some good picture of the Moon and Venus (landscape type picture since they were close together). The other aspect is the detail of items to search for on the moon, this is good cause my telescope is only 80mm and really the moon is the only decent object to view (apologies to experts of imaging with webcams). So rather than be-moan the lack of technical equipment I can focus my efforts on something that is achievable.

Author: Robin Scagell
By Philip's

Author: Laura Lovett, Joan Horvath, Jeff Cuzzi
By Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

A wonderful book, 2007-08-16
`Saturn: a new view' presents 150 images from the Cassini-Huygens mission to the ringed planet. Some are reproduced in print for the first time in this volume in extended photo-essays. And the pictures are amazing. It is well-worth going through at least twice. On the first time you can be awed by the sheer spectacle, on later viewings you can take in the subtle details. Just marvel at the range of colours and tones in the rings, the range of craters on Hyperion, the variations in Saturn' s cloudbands. Between the pictures, there are excellent essays on the Cassini-Huygens mission, the planet Saturn, its rings and its moons. The text is as much a pleasure to read as it is to view the pictures. I cannot recommend this book too much.

Author: NG Tyson
By W. W. Norton & Co.

Brilliant, 2008-05-20
This must be one of the most entertaining, intelligent and informative books on popular science I've read in years. Can't really fault it.

Author: Dava Sobel
By HarperPerennial

Out of this world, 2008-02-06
Read on a train trip to Torquay, this was a delightful meander through the Solar System. Snippets of information, entertaining tangents, flights of fancy...all perfect for those wanting to read something escapist and interesting but probably a nightmare to the 'shoes in a strait line' scientific reader. This is not the book for you if you want to know the specific gravity of Io or if you need to calatlogue the rotation speeds of Neptune's moons.

It is the sort of book that you read in order for your mind to go somewhere else. There are plenty of fascinating passages, but there are also lots of gentle pushes from Sobel that launch you off into a completely seperate set of thoughts that will see you returning in a page or two's time having missed the book's action but, nevertheless, had a fine time. It will drive scientific minds mad. I'm OK with that.

Author: Martin Rees
By Free Press

Stimulating new perspectives in Cosmology, 2003-02-15
This fascinating book deals with inter alia pregalactic history, black holes, dark matter, time in other possible universes, ecology of universes, omega and lambda, great attractors, pulsars, neutron stars and anthropic reasoning, which the author defends. It represents a drastic enlarging of our cosmic perspectives - the cosmos is more spectacular by far than we could have imagined. He also maintains that the apparent fine tuning that our existence depends on cannot be a coincidence. What we call the universe is likely to be just one member of an ensemble, but ours may be in an unusual subset that permits complexity and consciousness to develop. Our universe could be an atom in an infinite ensemble, a cosmic archipelago in which impassable barriers prohibit communication between the islands. Quoting scientists like Hawking and Chandrasekar throughout, the author broadens our understanding of cosmology and quantum science while offering unique and interesting new perspectives on our understanding of consciousness and existence. Highly recommended.

Author: Gerhard Wisnewski
By Clairview Books

Right on the money!, 2008-12-31
A great book I couldn't put it down from the start! The analysis became a bit scientific for me when Nasa couldn't give accurate details of the moon landing co-ordinates but I was there for most of the book!

I wonder what they'll do when we reach the 40th or 50th anniversary of the last moon landing and Nasa still hasn't returned to the moon! The author skillfully exposes the scam of manned space flight beyond 400 miles altitude an enjoyable and informative read!

Author: Linda K. Glover, Patricia S. Daniels, Andrea Gianopoulos, Jonathan T. Malay
By National Geographic Books

Author: Sir Patrick Moore
By Philip's

Clear, informative and beautiful, 2008-01-07
I'm not that keen on Patrick Moore as a presenter but this book is a marvel of clarity and concise information. The diagrams and sky maps are wonderfully informative and comprehensive. I'm one of those geeky people who appreciate all the minor but fascinating stuff, like the diagram which shows the orbits of transneptunian objects such as Sedna.

Author: Michael J. Carlowicz
By Harry N. Abrams, Inc.