This book presents a visionary concept for future development of space travel. It describes the enabling technology for future propulsion concepts and demonstrates how mankind will 'live off the land in space' in migration from Earth. For the next few millennia at least (barring breakthroughs), the human frontier will include the solar system and the nearest stars. Will it be better to settle the Moon, Mars, or a nearby asteroid and what environments can we expect to find in the vicinity of nearby stars? These are questions that need to be answered if mankind is to migrate into space.

Discover the fascinating and cutting-edge science behind the greatest question of all: is there life beyond Earth? For millennia, we have looked up at the stars and wondered whether we are alone in the universe. In the last few years, scientists have made huge strides towards answering that question. In The Aliens are Coming!, comedian and bestselling science writer Ben Miller takes us on a fantastic voyage of discovery, from the beginnings of life on earth to the very latest search for alien intelligence. What soon becomes clear is that the hunt for extra-terrestrials is also an exploration of what we actually mean by life. What do you need to kickstart life? How did the teeming energy of the Big Bang end up as frogs, trees and quantity surveyors? How can evolution provide clues about alien life? What might it look like? (Probably not green and sexy, sadly.) As our probes and manned missions venture out into the solar system, and our telescopes image Earth-like planets with ever-increasing accuracy, our search for alien life has never been more exciting - or better funded. The Aliens are Coming! is a comprehensive, accessible and hugely entertaining guide to that search, and our quest to understand the very nature of life itself.

Amateur astronomers interested in learning more about astronomical spectroscopy now have the guide they need. It provides detailed information about how to get started inexpensively with low-resolution spectroscopy, and then how to move on to more advanced high-resolution spectroscopy. Uniquely, the instructions concentrate very much on the practical aspects of using commercially-available spectroscopes, rather than simply explaining how spectroscopes work. The book includes a clear explanation of the laboratory theory behind astronomical spectrographs, and goes on to extensively cover the practical application of astronomical spectroscopy in detail. Four popular and reasonably-priced commercially available diffraction grating spectrographs are used as examples. The first is a low-resolution transmission diffraction grating, the Star Analyser spectrograph. The second is an inexpensive fiber optic coupled bench spectrograph that can be used to learn more about spectroscopy. The third is a newcomer, the ALPY 600 spectrograph. The fourth spectrograph considered is at the other end of the market both in performance and cost, the high-resolution Lhires III. While considerably more expensive, this is a popular and excellent scientific instrument, that allows more advanced amateur astronomers to produce scientifically valuable data. With all of these tools in place, the amateur astronomer is well-prepared to forger deeper into the night sky using spectroscopy.

The Concise Knowledge Astronomy, published in 1898, was one of a series of popular reference books by experts. Agnes Clerke (1842 1907) was a successful author of books on astronomy and its history (three of her other works being reissued in this series), and her co-authors were astrophysicist Alfred Fowler, an internationally renowned expert in spectroscopy, and J. Elland Gore, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and expert on variable stars. Illustrated by over 100 photographs and drawings, the book aims to provide the educated non-specialist reader with an understanding of current astronomical knowledge. The application of new technologies, such as photography and spectroscopy, to astronomy in the nineteenth century had led to many new discoveries, and public interest in the subject had greatly increased. The book is divided into four parts - the history of astronomy, astronomical movements and instruments, the solar system, and sidereal astronomy.

"The Universal Force" conveys the excitement of science and nature's mysteries. It describes gravitation as seen by examining the achievements of those great scientists who have struggled with the seemingly simple facts and managed to extract some truth about the nature of gravity, its origins, and its effects. Gravity is intimately tied up with motion, and therefore with time and space, and is responsible for planetary systems, the evolution of stars and the existence of black holes and the very beginning of the Universe. It is the universal force, and to look at gravity is to look at the deepest aspects of nature. The historical context from Aristotle's teleology through Galileo's conflict with the Church, to Newton's law, and Einstein's curved space time, displays the evolution of the science of gravity as one of the greatest and most fascinating human achievements. Contrary to popular opinion, all important science can be understood by anyone, with or without a scientific background. This book shows that the beauty and mysteries of science can be shared with everyone.

In 2004 a rock star, a TV astronomer and a young research astronomer sat down to write the story of the Universe in the order in which it happened, from its birth at the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, through to its ultimate demise in the infinitely far future. The aim of this book is to explain the Big Bang and everything that followed in a way that made sense, in the strict order in which events occurred, and without using maths, so it would be understandable to everyone, regardless of educational background. The original edition of Bang! was a bestseller, and a go-to for anyone wanting to understand the story of the origins and evolution of our Universe that did not duck the science. Since the first edition, thousands of planets have been discovered, the 'habitable zone' has expanded and a flotilla of new satellites has explored our own solar system, bringing back fresh images and new science. In this book all the latest findings about the evolution of stars and galaxies are included, and the current thinking about our ultimate origins. The latest ideas about Dark Matter and Dark Energy are explained, all illustrated with new images from the world's largest telescopes and space missions. This is the new, updated, popular guide to 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' - The Complete History of the Universe.

In a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on the planet paused to watch the live transmission of the Apollo 11 mission. To watch as humanity took a giant leap forward. A companion book to the landmark documentary series on BBC TV. The journey from Cape Canaveral to the Moon was a tremendous achievement of human courage and ingenuity. It was also a long, deadly march, haunted by the possibility of catastrophic failure on the world's stage. In an era when the most advanced portable computer weighed 70 pounds, had a 36-kilobite memory and operated on less power than a 60-watt lightbulb, the sheer audacity of the goal is breath-taking. But the triumph of imagination and the unity of the Earth that day would change the world. Based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material, Chasing the Moon reveals the unknown stories of the individuals who made the Moon landing a possibility, from inspirational science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark and controversial engineer Wernher von Braun, to pioneers like mathematician Poppy Northcutt and astronaut Edward Dwight. It vividly revisits the dawn of the Space Age, a heady time of scientific innovation, political calculation, media spectacle, visionary impulses and personal drama.

First published in 1909, this autobiography details the astonishing life of Roger Langdon (1825 94), a country station-master and amateur astronomer. Langdon's life is a remarkable story of self-education and determination: he started work as a farmer's boy at the age of eight, ran away from the home to work for a shipowner in Jersey at fourteen, and was then employed by a blacksmith, canvas manufacturers, and a solicitor before finding work with the Great Western Railway. Langdon was from an early age interested in astronomy, and eventually constructed four telescopes and his own observatory. He developed his own method for photographing the moon and the transit of Venus, and presented a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, which is included in the appendices. Langdon died before completing his autobiography, and the latter chapters on his scientific achievements and final years were completed by his daughter Ellen.

Written in 1877 by the French journalist Amedee Guillemin, this work appeared on British bookshelves at a time of intense interest in space, the solar system and stars. In the same year, Schiaparelli made his infamous 'discovery' of Martian canals, whetting the public's appetite for all things astronomical. Guillemin's account of comets was equally ambitious and, ultimately, more valuable. His subjects range from comet superstitions in Renaissance Italy to an accessible explanation of their orbits, constitution and brilliance. As James Glaisher notes in his Preface, 'there is no work that at all occupies the ground covered' by Guillemin. The author's imaginative prose, exemplified by his description of comets as 'long disowned stars', was translated sympathetically by Glaisher. Accompanied by eighty-five striking illustrations, including Halley's Comet as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, The World of Comets provides a fascinating insight into both astronomy and nineteenth-century scientific enquiry.

The Space Shuttle has been the dominant machine in the U.S. space program for thirty years and has generated a great deal of interest among space enthusiasts and engineers. This book enables readers to understand its technical systems in greater depth than they have been able to do so before. The author describes the structures and systems of the Space Shuttle, and then follows a typical mission, explaining how the structures and systems were used in the launch, orbital operations and the return to Earth. Details of how anomalous events were dealt with on individual missions are also provided, as are the recollections of those who built and flew the Shuttle. Many photographs and technical drawings illustrate how the Space Shuttle functions, avoiding the use of complicated technical jargon. The book is divided into two sections: Part 1 describes each subsystem in a technical style, supported by diagrams, technical drawings, and photographs to enable a better understanding of the concepts. Part 2 examines different flight phases, from liftoff to landing. Technical material has been obtained from NASA as well as from other forums and specialists. Author Davide Sivolella is an aerospace engineer with a life-long interest in space and is ideally qualified to interpret technical manuals for a wider audience. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the topic including the evolution of given subsystems, reviewing the different configurations, and focusing on the solutions implemented.

In this simple guide, David Levy inspires readers to experience the wonder of eclipses and other transient astronomical events for themselves. Covering both solar and lunar eclipses, he gives step-by-step instructions on how to observe and photograph eclipses. As well as explaining the science behind eclipses, the book also gives their historical background, discussing how they were observed in the past and what we have learned from them. This personal account contains examples from the 77 eclipses the author has witnessed himself. The guide also includes chapters on occultations of stars and planets by the Moon and of asteroids by stars, and the transits of Mercury and Venus. Tables of future eclipses make this invaluable for anyone, from beginners to practised observers, wanting to learn more about these fascinating events.

William F. Denning (1848 1931) was a British astronomer famous for his planetary observations and meteor studies. Elected president of the Liverpool Astronomical Society in 1887, he wrote a series of articles on telescopes for the society's journal, which were brought together and republished in 1891 under the title Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings. Intended as a contribution to popular astronomy, this book provides a varied introduction to telescopes and their usage. The opening essay traces the development of the telescope from antiquity, through Galileo and Newton's contributions in the seventeenth century, to contemporary progress in astronomy. Other chapters provide practical advice for conducting planetary observation and detailed studies of particular planets, as well as facts and figures about meteors and how to compute their orbit. This book provides a fascinating insight into the evolution of astronomy and will be a valuable resource for historians of science and amateur astronomers.

Agnes Mary Clerke (1842 1907) first published A Popular History of Astronomy in 1885. The work was received with widespread acclaim and brought Clerke an international reputation as a science writer. The History surveys the progress made in the field of astronomy during the nineteenth century. It is split chronologically into two parts, dealing with the first and the second half of the century. Part 1 focuses on the career of the astronomer William Herschel (1738 1822) and the development of sidereal astronomy; part 2 deals with the discovery of spectrum analysis and the progress of knowledge about sun spots and the magnetic disturbances which cause them. Clerke's work, a classic example of Victorian popular scientific literature, stands alongside Grant's earlier History of Astronomy in its success in popularising the subject. The work is important today for scholars researching the history of the discipline and its place in educated Victorian society.

This autobiography was first published in 1883, and recounts the life of the Scottish scientist and inventor James Nasmyth (1808-1890), who was arguably the last of the early pioneers of the machine tool industry, most famously remembered for his invention of the steam hammer. He also produced and manufactured several other important machine tools, including a hydraulic press which used water pressure to force tight-fitting machine parts together. All of these machines became popular in manufacturing, and all are still in use today in modified forms. Nasmyth retired from business in 1856 at the age of just 48, and pursued his various hobbies including astronomy; he was co-author of The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (1874) with James Carpenter. This autobiography follows a chronological order, and a list of Nasmyth's inventions is given at the end of the book.

The beginning astronomical observer passes through a series of stages. The initial stage is hugely exciting and gives the beginner a real buzz as he discovers some of the faint fuzzy objects, markings on the planets, rings around Saturn and the craters on the Moon. But as the novice observer progresses, he or she wants to know what more there is than looking at faint fuzzy blobs or indistinct planet markings. Many jump to the conclusion - wrongly - that they need to spend lots of money on expensive equipment to progress. "From Casual Stargazer to Amateur Astronomer" has been written specifically to address this group of budding stargazers. Astronomy is much more than a quick sightseeing tour. Patient observers who can develop their skills will start to appreciate what they are seeing, and will know exactly what to look out for on any particular night. And equally important, they will learn what not to expect to see. "From Casual Stargazer to Amateur Astronomer" is for those who want to develop observing skills beyond mere sightseeing, and learn some of the techniques used to carry out enjoyable - and scientifically useful - observations. It will also direct readers to make informed choices about what can be seen and when. This book is for anyone keen to develop their skills as an amateur astronomer.

Sir Robert Stawell Ball's Star-Land of 1889 is based on some of his Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution during his time as royal astronomer of Ireland, a post he held from 1874 to 1892. These lectures were aimed at a young audience in order to introduce them to the subject, and fire their interest in the wonders of the universe. This volume includes lectures on the sun, the moon, the inner and giant planets, comets and shooting stars, and stars. It also contains a chapter on the observation and naming of stars. Ball was a renowned public lecturer, with commissions across Britain, Ireland and the United States, where his anecdotal and conversational style won him much popularity. The author of several frequently reprinted science books, he was knighted in 1886 and in 1892 became Lowendean professor of astronomy at Cambridge and the director of the university observatory.

John Browning (1830-1925) was the leading British manufacturer of precision scientific instruments, including spectroscopes, telescopes, microscopes, and opthalmoscopes. In How to Work with the Spectroscope (1878), he provides a complete overview of the field in which he was the undisputed expert, describing in detail the care and use of instruments ranging from the universal spectroscope to the star spectroscope to the induction coil. This volume also includes Browning's A Plea for Reflectors (1867), in which he provides an introduction to the silvered-glass reflecting telescope. Numerous illustrations of the various instruments and a complete price list of Browning's lenses and other apparatuses provide important insight into his business practices and range of expertise. Designed for the lay enthusiast no less than the dedicated scientist, these volumes are also valuable witnesses to the growth of popular science in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.

This is a comprehensive guide to the basic movements we can observe in the sky. Schultz describes the daily movement of the stars from different parts of the earth (including southern hemisphere throughout). Included are the sun's pattern of the day and of the year, the moon's various periods, nodes and eclipses, as well as the planets' apparent movement and loops, conjunctions and transits. The appendix contains tables of periods and rhythms, and a guide to important occurrences to the year 2010.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Space Technology provides a comprehensive source of reference to the most important aspects of this fast-developing field, from basic concepts to advanced applications. With some 2300 entries, it lists the fundamental terms of the area and includes a selection of historical and highly specific entries adding context and depth. The unprecedented breadth of coverage ensures that there are entries on all major subject areas. While the emphasis is on defining the meaning of a word or phrase, entries have been written with the intention of enhancing the understanding of the subject, both for the practising specialist and the interested layman. To assist the reader in research on a given topic, related entries are highlighted in the text and other important entries are cross-referenced. The Cambridge Dictionary of Space Technology will be indispensable to anyone with an interest in space activity.

Volume 4 of The General History of Astronomy, originally published in 1984, concerns the birth of modern astrophysics in the nineteenth century, the growth of astronomical institutions to around 1920, and the development of instrumentation. The volume commences in the 1850s, with the first astronomical applications of photography and spectral analysis. It closes in the 1950s, before the explosive growth made possible by new electronic devices and computers. In Part A, there are eleven chapters, written by an international panel of eighteen authors, on subjects such as observatories, large telescopes, astronomy in the southern hemisphere, and early radio astronomy. Intended for general readership, this book formed part of an in-depth synthesis of the development of astronomy from the earliest times.

Emigrating Beyond Earth puts space colonization into the context of human evolution. Rather than focusing on the technologies and strategies needed to colonize space, the authors examine the human and societal reasons for space colonization. They make space colonization seems like a natural step by demonstrating that if will continue the human species' 4 million-year-old legacy of adaptation to difficult new environments. The authors present many examples from the history of human expansion into new environments, including two amazing tales of human colonization - the prehistoric settlement of the upper Arctic around 5,000 years ago and the colonization of the Pacific islands around 3,000 years ago - which show that space exploration is no more about rockets and robots that Arctic exploration was about boating!

With the advent of CCDs and webcams, the focus of amateur astronomy has to some extent shifted from science to art. Visual work in astronomy has a rich history. Today, imaging is now more prominent. However there is still much for the visual amateur astronomer to do, and visual work is still a valid component of amateur astronomy. Paul Abel has been addressing this issue by promoting visual astronomy wherever possible - at talks to astronomical societies, in articles for popular science magazines, and on BBC TV's The Sky at Night. Visual Lunar and Planetary Astronomy is a comprehensive modern treatment of visual lunar and planetary astronomy, showing that even in the age of space telescopes and interplanetary probes it is still possible to contribute scientifically with no more than a moderately-priced commercially made astronomical telescope. It is believed that imaging and photography is somehow more objective and more accurate than the eye, and this has led to a peculiar "crisis of faith" in the human visual system and its amazing processing power. But by analyzing observations from the past, we can see how accurate visual astronomy really is! Measuring the rotational period of Mars and making accurate lunar charts for American astronauts were all done by eye. The book includes sections on how the human visual system works, how to view an object through an eyepiece, and how to record observations and keep a scientific notebook. The book also looks at how to make an astronomical, rather than an artistic, drawing. Finally, everything here will also be of interest to those imagers who wish to make their images more scientifically applicable by combining the methods and practices of visual astronomy with imaging.

How did life begin on Earth? Is it confined to our planet? Will humans one day be able to travel long distances in space in search of other life forms? Written by three experts in the space arena, Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System aims to answer these and other intriguing questions. Beginning with what we understand of life on Earth, it describes the latest ideas about the chemical basis of life as we know it, and how they are influencing strategies to search for life elsewhere. It considers the ability of life, from microbes to humans, to survive in space, on the surface of other planets, and be transported from one planet to another. It looks at the latest plans for missions to search for life in the Solar System, and how these are being influenced by new technologies, and current thinking about life on Earth. This fascinating and broad-ranging book is for anyone with an interest in the search for life beyond our planet.

This book takes the reader on an exploration of the structure and evolution of our universe. The basis for our knowledge is the Big Bang theory of the expanding universe. This book then tells the story of our search for the first stars and galaxies using current and planned telescopes. These telescopes are marvels of technology far removed from Galileo's first telescope but continuing astronomy in his ground breaking spirit. We show the reader how these first stars and galaxies shaped the universe we see today. This story is one of the great scientific adventures of all time.

This book is, ina sense, a sequel to David Seargent's first Springer book "Weird Astronomy" (2010). Whereas "Weird Astronomy" extended over a broad range of purely astronomical topics, the present work concentrates on phenomena closer to home; the atmospheric and "shallow space" events as opposed to deep space events. The line between astronomy and meteorology is blurred - a fact that is discussed in "Weird Weather." It is not primarily a book of "wonders" or of the unexplained, although some of the topics covered remain mysteries. It is primarily directed toward those who are fascinated by climate and weather, and who are open-minded when considering Earth's climate, what drives it, and what are the causes of climate change. The author, David A. J. Seargent, presents the facts with a balanced and scientific approach.

"Weird Weather: Tales of Astronomical and Atmospheric Anomalies" is about strange, unusual, and apparently inexplicable observations of the air and sky. Primarily these are in the Earth's atmosphere, but there are corresponding phenomena in the atmospheres of other planets of the Solar System - lightning on Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, whirlwinds and dust storms of Mars, and auroras on Jupiter. Topics include anomalous lights, anomalous sounds, spectacular effects of cloud illumination by the Sun or Moon, lightning phenomena, electrophonic sounds of lightning, aurora and meteors, tornado and whirlwind phenomena on Earth and Mars, usual atmospheric effects, mirages, and the possible astronomical influences on cloud and climate."