JB80
05-10-2012, 06:46 PM
The Sky at Night - Answers to Questions from across the Universe!
By Patrick Moore & Chris North
People may be familiar with the long running BBC program "The Sky at Night" hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, infact it is the longest running program in TV history with the same presenter and to celebrate the shows 55th anniversary they have released the book "Answers to Questions from across the Universe!".
The format of the book is a straight forward Q&A one made up of the questions that viewers young and old have sent in to the television show from across the world to be answered on the program.
Patrick Moore shares his expertise on the Moon and draws on his long history in astronomy while Chris North is a professional astronomer and cosmologist who answers some of the more cosmological questions. Between the two they have quite a bit covered!
Because the questions in the book have been sent in by a wide range of people with some being basic questions to those more complex the approach taken to answering them is one that everybody can understand, in as simple of terms as possible and there is no complex mathematics to worry about either. And I thought they did a good job too, even when descibing some of the more complex mechanisms.
As you read you find yourself already knowing the answer to some of the questions or maybe not exactly being how you recalled it with others to not having a clue and trying to guess what the answers may be. I find the format to be very engaging with the reader.
Overall there are 10 chapters ranging from Observing, The Moon, the Solar System, Stars and Galaxies, Cosmology, Space travel and more....
I'm just going to open to some random pages and pick a couple of questions out to give you some sort of idea of the questions.
What are the different eyepieces for, such as the 25mm wide-angle eyepiece?
Was the Moons orbit in the same direction as the Earth's rotation after it's formation?
What shape is the Universe and how do we know?
Do you think the case for Dark Matter and Dark Energy is proved? Do they even make sense? Is it not more likely we have got our sums wrong or incomplete?
So you get the idea, there is a wide range of topics covered and where there is a complex answer there is also a simple one too. They're not shy either with giving various possible explanations and often quantifying it with "We can't really be sure for certain or just don't know".
It's an honest book like that and if you are a viewer of the show you can almost here the voices of the presenters as you read.
In conclusion I would rate this book fairly highly, it does what it sets out to do in a very informative and easy to read manner. It's the sort of book that can be enjoyed by all ages and all levels although some may prefer heavier reading but that was not what this book was about.
I can highly recommend this book for all those with an interest in space and space science and I would strongly recommend this book for youngsters too, I believe it could be very inspirational for young minds and is not too over the top for them.
The authors' enthusiasm to share and educate is something that really come through as well which is refreshing.
Overall I'd rate this book a 9/10 although I'm not certain what they could of done better to up that rating.
By Patrick Moore & Chris North
People may be familiar with the long running BBC program "The Sky at Night" hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, infact it is the longest running program in TV history with the same presenter and to celebrate the shows 55th anniversary they have released the book "Answers to Questions from across the Universe!".
The format of the book is a straight forward Q&A one made up of the questions that viewers young and old have sent in to the television show from across the world to be answered on the program.
Patrick Moore shares his expertise on the Moon and draws on his long history in astronomy while Chris North is a professional astronomer and cosmologist who answers some of the more cosmological questions. Between the two they have quite a bit covered!
Because the questions in the book have been sent in by a wide range of people with some being basic questions to those more complex the approach taken to answering them is one that everybody can understand, in as simple of terms as possible and there is no complex mathematics to worry about either. And I thought they did a good job too, even when descibing some of the more complex mechanisms.
As you read you find yourself already knowing the answer to some of the questions or maybe not exactly being how you recalled it with others to not having a clue and trying to guess what the answers may be. I find the format to be very engaging with the reader.
Overall there are 10 chapters ranging from Observing, The Moon, the Solar System, Stars and Galaxies, Cosmology, Space travel and more....
I'm just going to open to some random pages and pick a couple of questions out to give you some sort of idea of the questions.
What are the different eyepieces for, such as the 25mm wide-angle eyepiece?
Was the Moons orbit in the same direction as the Earth's rotation after it's formation?
What shape is the Universe and how do we know?
Do you think the case for Dark Matter and Dark Energy is proved? Do they even make sense? Is it not more likely we have got our sums wrong or incomplete?
So you get the idea, there is a wide range of topics covered and where there is a complex answer there is also a simple one too. They're not shy either with giving various possible explanations and often quantifying it with "We can't really be sure for certain or just don't know".
It's an honest book like that and if you are a viewer of the show you can almost here the voices of the presenters as you read.
In conclusion I would rate this book fairly highly, it does what it sets out to do in a very informative and easy to read manner. It's the sort of book that can be enjoyed by all ages and all levels although some may prefer heavier reading but that was not what this book was about.
I can highly recommend this book for all those with an interest in space and space science and I would strongly recommend this book for youngsters too, I believe it could be very inspirational for young minds and is not too over the top for them.
The authors' enthusiasm to share and educate is something that really come through as well which is refreshing.
Overall I'd rate this book a 9/10 although I'm not certain what they could of done better to up that rating.