Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron
Try this book by Fred Watson, it is a great read and very informative 
Stargazer: the life and times of the telescope
By Fred Watson
Fred is also a good friend to us amateur Astronomers |
I have this book also (a signed copy from Fred), and it is very good. Fred is a great story teller, with lots of funny anecdotes mixed with solid historiography.
However, it is really only a history of the telescope as opposed to being a history of astronomy per se. I would suggest something else if you want to understand the overall history of astronomy, or of astrophysics.
There are lots of good general astronomy texts at most decent second hand book stores. I have picked up quite a few of these....reading them is quite interesting because you see over time how our understanding of the cosmos has changed. For instance, I have one text all about our Milky Way galaxy which was written before Sagittarius A (our black hole) was discovered - indeed before black holes, period, were considered mainstream science.
Happy reading!