Essential Atlas of Astronomy

Book excerpt: This good-looking, information-packed atlas has been designed with space-age skywatchers in mind. It's filled with full-color photos, sky charts, and vivid full-color art renditions of objects in outer space. Diagrams and illustrations explain the origins of the universe and our solar system. Photos taken from powerful telescopes capture visions of comets, nebulae, stars being born, distant galaxies, the surface of our Sun, and the earth's neighboring planets. The composition of the Earth, as well as other planets, is shown and discussed. Also shown and explained are both ancient and modern telescopes, including giant, state-of-the-art radiotelescopes located in various parts of the world. The book's final section shows and discusses the history of space exploration, starting with early twentieth-century experiments in rocket science, and extending to the international manned space station currently under construction. Here's a great volume for amateur astronomers of all ages, and a fine textbook supplement for high school science classes.