Whats in your bookcase

[TrevorW]

Ok don't know if this ones been done before but I'd like to see who has a like mind when it comes to Astronomy reading

All about Telescopes- Edmund Scientific
Atlas of the Night Sky- Storm Dunlop
Astrophotography- (Phiilips) -H .Arnold
Galileo's Daughter- Dave Sobel
Coming of Age within the Milky Way-Timothy Ferris
Stephen Hawkins- Michael White
Exploring Earth and the Cosmos- Isaac Asimov
Astronomy 1 The Solar System- Russell Dugan Stewart c1945
Burnhams Celestrial Handbook
The Planet Mars
Afterglow of Creation
Star Maps
Photgraphic Guide to The Planets
Jupiter- Patrick Moore
The Radian Universe- Michael Marten
Night Sky Atlas
Nortons Star Atlas

and a few more to boot,

:cool:

[Ian Robinson]

Mostly a gaggle uni textbooks , handbooks and reference books on :
physics
chemistry
maths
chemical and process engineering
electronics and electical engineering
heat and mass transfer
C++
Java
Fortran 77
computer engineering
process modeling
management
process control systems
combustion systems and combustion engineering
materials and refractory engineering
physical metallurgy
education
sociology
six sigma and TQC
and
several books on telescope making (the usual suspects)
several books on photography (all film related)
4wd driving books and guides (all Australia focused)

[Chrissyo]

Great topic! I love reading books on space flight/astronomy.

Apart from various physics/mathematics/astronomy text books for uni:

- Sojourner: An insiders view of the Mars Pathfinder Mission.
- Fred Hoyle: A life in science.
- Cosmos (Carl Sagan!).
- Cosmology: A very short introduction.
- The Hubble Space Telescope.
- Failure is not an option.
- First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong.
- Eclipse: Voyage to Darkness and Light.
- Observing the Moon.
- Moondust.
- Space Race.
- The Neptune File.
- Deke!
- Bad Astronomy.
- Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journerys.
- The Complete Idiots Guide to Astronomy.
- The Planets (A coffee table like book).
- Atlas of the Southern Night Sky.

Plus a variety of DVDs.

[leon]

This is an interesting post, but i'm afraid i have to many books on my shelf to list. at last count it was 137 astronomy related books.

Just out of interest I went to the public libarary and have twice as many as they do.

Leon

[TrevorW]

Yo Chris I have Space Race in my library as well

Ian I have numerous books on maths, physics, chemistry, programming etc
which I didn't mention as well as others as I was purely sticking to astronomy

Leon looks like you are a prolific reader something to do on those cloudy nights

Attached is a photo of my primary fact bookcase fiction is in another one.

[leon]

Trevor that book case looks very similar to mine, only mine runs sideways. :lol:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Ian Robinson]

My book cases are overflowing , got books on top of them and shelves are double stacked too , I don't get much time for recreational reading.

[TrevorW]

Leon is the beatles picture signed, nice line up

[leon]

Na Mate, I wish, cant really remember where I got that one from, it has been there a while.

Leon

[Phil]

I to have to many books to write down. I think i need a book self. Love ready my astro books.
Phil

[timelord]

Hi guys , I have several astronomy related books and dvd's but my pride and joy is a personally signed copy of John Glenn a Memoir!

[leon]

Oh that's right, I forgot about that one, I have the book, A View of the Universe, signed twice, from two different functions by David Malin, I will always cherish that one.

Leon

[33South]

Quite a few astronomy books, amongst them some older ones worth a mention.

Sir James Jeans "The Stars In Their Courses" 1931
Patrick Moore "Guide to the stars" 1960
Fred Hoyle "Astronomy" 1964
J.B. Sidwick "Amateur Astronomer's Handbook" 1955
Kenneth Glyn Jones "Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters 1968


Not so old but unusual Ken Fulton "The Light-Hearted Astronomer" Only 115 pages and no pictures

[WadeH]

Great topic.

My collection consists of:

The Cambridge Guide to the Solar System.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Amatuer Astronomy.
The Southern Stars (Patrick Moore, 1975)
The Moon (Patrick Moore,1981)
Planets (Carl Sagan, et al 1967)
Cosmos (Carl Sagan, 1981)
Halleys Comet, 1985.
Contemporary Astronomy, 1977.
Through the Telescope (James Baikie, 1906)
Hartungs second edition.
Astrophotography for the Amateur.
Astronomy Hacks
and others.

As you can see I have a thing for the older books and like to see how things have changed.

[fringe_dweller]

my modest but reasonably decent collection i have listed in similar previous threads before, but i will repeat mention a copy of a hard cover second edition Hartungs i bought new in the 90s, which i read in another thread is now is sometimes possibly more valuable than the 60 bucks i paid for it, as it is out of print - and a 1992 print of 'the southern sky' a practical guide to astronomy' by david reidy and ken wallace

but I bought some new books off amazon recently, as i am slowly starting to build again, specially comet related books,that has reminded me of the joys of a good book, as opposed to that giant living book the internet, and magazine collections.
'introduction to comets' second edition by John C Brandt and Robert D Chapman and 'observing Comets, Asteroids, Meteors, and The Zodiacal light' by Stephen J Edberg and David H Levy
certainly some damn good reading, its just good having everything in one place!
certainly not ones i would of easily found on local bookstore shelves!

[Jeff]

Most of my astronomy books (about 20) are fairly mainstream.
The only slightly unusual text I have is:

"Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments" - Martin J Fogg, 544 pages

Cheers,
Jeff

[Ian Robinson]

Sounds like an interesting read.

Does it go into the detailed geophysics and geochemistry or is more aimed at lay people ?

A proposal I read about once was diverting comets to collide with Mars to provide water and eventually promote a mild greenhouse effect as the atmosphere thickened and the partial pressure water vapour in the marsian atmosphere increased.
There might be a good use for all those thousands of nuke warheads the yanks, russians, french , indians, pakistanis, chinese, israelis and brits have , ie diverting comets.

[Jeff]

Yes, it does go into detailed geophysics and geochemistry. Its focus is on serious discussion (alternative approaches, current versus developing technologies, force/energy requirements, chemical equations, required time frames, etc). It also briefly discusses a few ridiculous alternatives, and tactfully discusses why they may be impractical.

Ideal to have an engineering or science background to fully appreciate this book, although those with a solid understanding if year-12 chemistry, physics and maths would also be fine also.

A snippet from the Table of Contents is as follows:

Chapter 5 - The Ecopoiesis of Mars
5.2 Mars as an Abode of Life
5.3 Approached to Terraforming Mars
5.4 Early Ecopoiesis Models
5.5 Modern Ecopoiesis Models
5.6 Organisms for Pioneering Mars

Chapter 6 - The Terraforming of Mars
6.1 Problems with a Popular Paradigm
6.2 Tackling the Volatiles Problem
6.3 A Synergic Scenario for Terraforming Mars
6.4 The Problem of Attention Span

Chapter 7 - The Terraforming of Venus
7.1 A Fair Imagined Venus
7.2 The Revealed Venus
7.3 The Requirements of Terraforming Venus
7.4 Aerial Photosynthesis
7.5 Importation of Reductants
7.6 Impact Erosion
7.7 Freezing Out Carbon Dioxide
7.8 Disposal of CO2 by Chemical Weathering
7.9 The Problem of the Diurnal Cycle
7.10 A Comparison of Scale

Chapter 8 - Terraforming: Alternative Methods, Fringe Concepts, and Ultimate Possibilities
8.1 Fleshing out the Envelope
8.2 Paraterraforming
8.3 Terraforming the "Lesser Planets"
8.4 Planet Shifting
8.5 Cosmic Engineering Meets Terraforming
8.6 Terraforming and the Interstellar Future

Cheers,
Jeff

[TrevorW]

Jeff terraformng Mars we can only live in hope, the worlds getting way too crowded no one has time for anyone else we need to spread out ie if we are to survive as a species

[Ian Robinson]

Or we need to abandon the crazy and outrageous profit driven consumer consumption economics and capitalistism that has been hell bent on and continues stuffing up the planet.