Astronomical Observations: Astronomy and the Study of Deep Space

Grade 9 Up—Designed for dedicated students of space science and adult general readers, these books recast articles from the Britannica Online database into linear narratives that treat their respective topics systematically and in advanced detail. Observations opens with a history of astronomical observation, then goes on to describe astronomers' techniques, celestial mechanics, types of telescopes and other instruments. A biographical section introduces approximately 75 astronomers, grouped by century, and a final chapter analyzes the impact of technology on the science and vice versa. Inner Solar System opens with a look back at the solar system's origins, then describes the Sun and each of the inner planets in turn, with separate chapters on Earth's Moon and on eclipses. Outer Solar System opens with lengthy chapters on asteroids and meteors, then describes each of the outer planets in turn, Pluto and the spaces beyond, and, finally, comets. The Universe is half a history of cosmology and half an expanded version with no duplicated entries of the biographical encyclopedia in Astronomical Observations. Strangely, the authors of these books are never identified, though they are clearly experts in their subjects. Illustrated with a stingy handful of uniformly drab and muddy black-and-white photos, but technically solid and capped with valuable multiple appendixes and resource lists, these surveys will be useful where there is demand for just-short-of-professional materials in the area, and online versions are not available.—John Peters, New York Public Library