The world's first mountain-top observatory and America's first big-science research center, Lick Observatory exemplifies astronomy's dramatic development in the past century. A dedicated Confederate naval officer and his jack-of-all-trades foreman used the bequest of a miserly California eccentric to transform an isolated mountain peak into the world's premier research observatory. Its first staff included a director from West Point and three of the outstanding astronomers of their time. Since its dedication in 1888, Lick Observatory has been the site of many of the most important discoveries in astronomy. "Eye on the Sky" presents Lick Observatory from the point of view of the people who breathed life into its giant telescopes. Their community was both constant and constantly transformed, shaped by workers famous and unknown who made it their home. The authors also explain in terms anyone can understand the laboratory advances that were adapted to telescopes to make them more powerful, and the conceptual breakthroughs that discoveries at the telescope helped bring about. The men and women who went to the top of Mount Hamilton in search of greater knowledge of the skies helped to change our conception of the universe and our place in it . They were people with personal and political lives as well as scientific careers, and their story illuminates a time and a place where foundations were laid for the discoveries of the next century.

The ideal gift for all amateur and seasoned astronomers. A comprehensive handbook to the planets, stars and constellations visible from the southern hemisphere. 6 pages for each month covering January-December 2023. Diagrams drawn for the latitude of southern Australia, but including events visible from New Zealand and South Africa. Written and illustrated by astronomical experts, Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion. Content includes: Advice on where to start looking Easy-to-use star maps for each month with descriptions of what to see Special, detailed charts for positions of planets, minor planets and comets in 2023 Seasonal charts Details of dark sky sites Details of objects and events you might see in 2023 Diagrams of notable events visible from Australia, and some for New Zealand and South Africa Also available: A month-by-month guide to exploring the skies above Britain and Ireland and A month-by-month guide to exploring the skies above North America.

This innovative - Glow-in-the-Dark - pocket reference highlights prominent constellations and stars that are visible with the naked eye south of the equator. Simply shine a light on the guide to illuminate the constellations and their names on the summer or winter star charts. Also includes descriptions of the meaning of each constellation and instructions on how to use your fingers to 'walk' between constellations to find prominent stars. Laminated for durability, this clever guide is an excellent source of portable information and ideal for field use by novices and experts alike.

A brief guide to the real science of interstellar travel With known exoplanets now numbering in the thousands and initiatives like 100 Year Starship and Breakthrough Starshot advancing the idea of interstellar travel, the age-old dream of venturing forth into the cosmos and perhaps even colonizing distant worlds may one day become a reality. A Traveler's Guide to the Stars reveals how. Les Johnson takes you on a thrilling tour of the physics and technologies that may enable us to reach the stars. He discusses the latest exoplanet discoveries, promising interstellar missions on the not-so-distant horizon, and exciting new developments in space propulsion, power, robotics, communications, and more. But interstellar travel will not be easy, and it is not for the faint of heart. Johnson describes the harsh and forbidding expanse of space that awaits us, and he addresses the daunting challenges-both human and technological-that we will need to overcome in order to realize tomorrow's possibilities. A Traveler's Guide to the Stars is your passport to the next great frontier of human discovery, providing a rare inside look at the remarkable breakthroughs in science and technology that will help tomorrow's space travelers chart a course for the stars.

'An ideal introduction [to Stephen Hawking]' - Independent 'Astonishingly comprehensive - clearer than Hawking himself' - Focus Stephen Hawking was a world-famous physicist with a cameo in The Simpsons on his CV, but outside of his academic field his work was little understood. To the public he was a tragic figure - a brilliant scientist and author of the 9 million-copy-selling A Brief History of Time, and yet spent the majority of his life confined to a wheelchair and almost completely paralysed. Hawking's major contribution to science was to integrate the two great theories of 20th-century physics: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate's brilliant graphic guide explores Hawking's life, the evolution of his work from his days as a student, and his breathtaking discoveries about where these fundamental laws break down or overlap, such as on the edge of a Black Hole or at the origin of the Universe itself.

Love Space? Love LEGO? If the answer is yes, you'll love this book! 'Brick by Brick Space' will teach you how to build amazing space projects, giving step by step instructions - simple and easy. And all you need for it to work are LEGO bricks! If you want to bring to make amazing space craft, our planets, the galaxy and more, this book will help you do it - and all in the middle of your living room! Not only will you learn how to build amazing space projects; you'll also learn a bit more about them, through the information scattered throughout the book. This book teaches you how to make incredible space projects, and to understand them a bit better - a must-have for space lovers!

Science fiction is filled with spacecraft. On Earth, actual rockets explode over Texas while others make their way to Mars. But what are spacecraft, and just what can they teach us about imagination, ecology, democracy, and the nature of objects? Why do certain spacecraft stand out in popular culture? If ever there were a spacecraft that could be detached from its context, sold as toys, turned into Disney rides, parodied, and flit around in everyone's head-the Millennium Falcon would be it. Springing from this infamous Star Wars vehicle, Spacecraft takes readers on an intergalactic journey through science fiction and speculative philosophy, revealing real-world political and ecological lessons along the way. In this book Timothy Morton shows how spacecraft are never mere flights of fancy.

The point of this book is to provide a brief, easy-to-read but comprehensive overview of stars: where they came from; what they are made of; what will happen to them, and what they mean to us from a scientific, aesthetic and cultural point of view. The book will focus on stars and astronomy, and will keep technical physics to a minimum.

This is a modern textbook that guides the reader through the theory and practice of satellite orbit prediction and determination. Starting from the basic principles of orbital mechanics, it covers elaborate force models as well as precise methods of satellite tracking. Emphasis is on numerical treatment and a multitude of algorithms adopted in modern satellite trajectory computation are described in detail. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all source codes written in C++ and relevant data files for applications. The result is a powerful and unique spaceflight dynamics library which allows easy software extensions by the user. An extensive collection of Internet resources is provided through WWW hyperlinks to detailed and frequently updated online information on spaceflight dynamics. The book addresses students, scientist working in the field of navigation, geodesy and spaceflight technology and satellite engineers and operators focusing on spaceflight dynamics.

A beautifully illustrated, enlightening edition of astronomer Jillan Scudder's exploration of our universe. Looking up at the night sky, it is almost impossible to imagine that we can trace our common ancestry with the distant stars and galaxies back over 13.8 billion years. Astroquizzical explores this connection by travelling back through the generations of the cosmic family tree, from Earth (parent) to the stars (grandparents), galaxies (great grandparents) and first atoms of the Big Bang (great-great grandparents). On the journey, the reader is invited to become 'astroquizzical' by asking the questions and investigating the many scientific mysteries of how the universe was formed and how it works. This updated and illustrated edition combines beautifully curated space images with ten sketchbook 'thought experiments' to create a uniquely accessible guide to the science of Earth's place among the planets, stars, and galaxies.

April 13, 1970. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert are hurtling towards the moon in the Apollo 13 spacecraft, when an explosion rocks the ship. The cockpit grows dim, the air grows thin, and the instrument lights wink out. Moments later, the astronauts are forced to abandon the main ship for the tiny lunar module, designed to keep two men alive for just two days. But there are three men aboard and they are four days from home. As the action shifts from the disabled ship to the frantic engineers at Mission Control to Lovell's anxious family, APOLLO 13 brilliantly recreates the harrowing, heroic mission in all its drama and glory. This gripping story of human endurance is the basis for Ron Howard's classic film starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon.

Marvel at the wonders of the Universe, from stars and planets to black holes and nebulae, in this exploration of our Solar System and beyond. Universe opens with a look at astronomy and the history of the Universe, using 3D artworks to provide a comprehensive grounding in the fundamental concepts of astronomy, including the basic techniques of practical astronomy. The core of the book is a tour of the cosmos covering the Solar System, the Milky Way, and galaxies beyond our own. Explanatory pages introduce different celestial phenomena, such as galaxies, and are followed by catalogues that profile the most interesting and important examples. A comprehensive star atlas completes the picture, with entries on each of the 88 constellations and a monthly sky guide showing the night sky as it appears throughout the year as viewed from both the northern and southern hemispheres.

'Sarah Cruddas is a gifted writer and Look Up is an inspired book. I am hopeful that we will never stop looking up.' Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins Most of us have never been to space. To date, of the more than 100 billion humans that have ever existed, fewer than 600 humans have ever left Earth. But the exploration of space is the most significant thing we will ever do as a species. Sarah Cruddas has been looking to the skies her entire life. Her childhood was spent staring at the Moon and hearing stories of the space race, and she worked in a fruit factory to fund her love of the subject. Her subsequent career studying astrophysics, and becoming a television host and space journalist has seen her report on space exploration and chase launches across the world. In Look Up Sarah explains why she has always been a passionate advocate for why space should matter - to everyone. From our ancestors who first painted patterns of the stars in caves, to the US and Soviet pioneers who first forged a path beyond our planet, Sarah Cruddas explores the stories and sacrifices that humankind has made to understand more about our place in the universe. And even today, when Moon walking and people in space suits seem less relevant to us than climate change and conflicts here on Earth, she shows how everything from medicine to mobile phones is affected by space technology, and how a new generation of entrepreneurs have kick-started a new story with the stars. This is an inspirational and enlightening introduction to the importance of space to everyone, and why we should all learn to Look Up.

Stargazing is among the most peaceful and inspiring outdoor activities. Night Sky, the award-winning book by Jonathan Poppele, makes it more fun than ever! Take a simple approach to finding 62 constellations by focusing on one constellation at a time, instead of attempting to study dizzying charts. Start with the easy-to-find constellations during each season and work toward the more difficult ones. Better yet, you'll learn how to locate any constellation in relation to the Big Dipper, the North Star, and the top of the sky. With two ways to locate each constellation, you'll know where in the sky to look and what to look for! Along the way, you'll be introduced to mythology, facts, and tidbits, as well as details about the planets, solar system, and more! As an added bonus, the book comes with a red-light flashlight for night reading.

This inspirational picture book reveals what is was like for a young black mother of three to navigate the difficult world of the 1950s and 60s and to succeed in an unwelcoming industry to become one of the now legendary "hidden figures" of NASA computing and space research. Johnson's own empowering narrative is complemented by the recollections of her two daughters about their mother's work and insights about how she illuminated their paths, including one daughter's fight for civil rights and another's journey to become a NASA mathematician herself. The narrative gracefully weaves together Johnson's personal story, her influence on her daughters' formative years, her and her daughters' fight for civil rights, and her lasting impact on NASA and space exploration. Filled with personal reflections, exclusive family archival photos, and striking illustrations, readers will be immersed in this deeply personal portrayal of female empowerment, women in STEM, and the breaking down of race barriers across generations. Historical notes, photo/illustration notes, and a time line put the story into historical and modern-day context. The inspirational tale of Johnson's perseverance is both intimate and global, showcasing the drive of each generation to push one step further than the last. With its evocative family album-style format and novel approach to storytelling, One Step Further is sure to inspire the next generation of rising stars.

Award-winning science writer and documentarian Rod Pyle presents an insider's perspective on the most unusual and bizarre space missions ever devised inside and outside of NASA. The incredible projects described here were not merely flights of fancy dreamed up by space enthusiasts, but actual missions planned by leading aeronautical engineers. Some were designed but not built; others were built but not flown; and a few were flown to failure but little reported: A giant rocket that would use atomic bombs as propulsion (never mind the fallout), military bases on the moon that could target enemies on earth with nuclear weapons, a scheme to spray-paint the lenses of Soviet spy satellites in space, the rushed Soyuz 1 spacecraft that ended with the death of its pilot, the near-disaster of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the mysterious Russian space shuttle that flew only once and was then scrapped--these are just some of the unbelievable tales that Pyle has found in once top-secret documents as well as accounts that were simply lost for many decades. These stories, complimented by many rarely-seen photos and illustrations, tell of a time when nothing was too off-the-wall to be taken seriously, and the race to the moon and the threat from the Soviet Union trumped all other considerations. Readers will be fascinated, amused, and sometimes chilled.

From time immemorial, poets and philosophers have looked in awe and wonder at the Universe. Such awe is shared by astrophysicists, too, as they seek to understand its nature, and whether it has any limits. In The Infinite Cosmos, Joseph Silk, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, cosmologist and well-known science writer, brings together the modern understanding of the Universe, its structure, its evolution, and its possible fate, combining the latest from theory and observation. The narrative is peppered with quotations from literature and philosophy, and reflects, too, on the process of scientific discovery, and the implications of our discoveries.

Listing more than 500 sky targets, both near and far, in 187 challenges, this observing guide will test novice astronomers and advanced veterans alike. Its unique mix of Solar System and deep-sky targets will have observers hunting for the Apollo lunar landing sites, searching for satellites orbiting the outermost planets, and exploring hundreds of star clusters, nebulae, distant galaxies, and quasars. Each target object is accompanied by a rating indicating how difficult the object is to find, an in-depth visual description, an illustration showing how the object realistically looks, and a detailed finder chart to help you find each challenge quickly and effectively. This guide introduces objects often overlooked in other observing guides and challenges are provided for the naked eye, through binoculars, to the largest backyard telescopes. This paperback edition has updated charts and data tables to challenge observers for many years to come.

Discover the wonders of the Universe with this indispensable guide. The Night Sky is chock full of information explaining what, when and how to observe space and understanding the night sky. Not only accessible, but also invaluable, this is the perfect practical guide for both budding and seasoned astronomers, an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful resource for more experienced stargazers.

Covering both astronomical and geophysical perspectives, this book describes changes in the Earth's orientation, specifically precession and nutation, and how they are observed and computed in terms of tidal forcing and models of the Earth's interior. Following an introduction to key concepts and elementary geodetic theory, the book describes how precise measurements of the Earth's orientation are made using observations of extra-galactic radio-sources by Very Long Baseline Interferometry techniques. It demonstrates how models are used to accurately pinpoint the location and orientation of the Earth with reference to the stars, and how to determine variations in its rotation speed. A theoretical framework is also presented that describes the role played by the structure and properties of the Earth's deep interior. Incorporating suggestions for future developments in nutation theory for the next generation models, this book is ideal for advanced-level students and researchers in solid Earth geophysics, planetary science and astronomy.

In The Art of Astrophotography, astronomer and Popular Astronomy columnist Ian Morison provides the essential foundations of how to produce beautiful astronomical images. Every type of astroimaging is covered, from images of the Moon and planets, to the constellations, star clusters and nebulae within our Milky Way Galaxy and the faint light of distant galaxies. He achieves this through a series of worked examples and short project walk-throughs, detailing the equipment needed - starting with just a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera and tripod, and increasing in complexity as the book progresses - followed by the way to best capture the images and then how, step by step, these may be processed and enhanced to provide results that can rival those seen in astronomical magazines and books. Whether you are just getting into astrophotography or are already deeply involved, Morison's advice will help you capture and create enticing astronomical images.

All the matter and light we can see in the universe makes up a trivial 5 per cent of everything. The rest is hidden. This could be the biggest puzzle that science has ever faced.

Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart, but something concealed holds them together. That ’something' is dark matter – invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets.

By the 1990s we also knew that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. Something, named dark energy, is pushing it to expand faster and faster. Across the universe, this requires enough energy that the equivalent mass would be nearly fourteen times greater than all the visible material in existence.

Brian Clegg explains this major conundrum in modern science and looks at how scientists are beginning to find solutions to it.

The "New York Times" bestseller about the strange history of NASA and its cover-ups regarding its origins and extraterrestrial architecture found on the moon and Mars is even more interesting in its new edition.

Authors Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara include a new chapter about the discoveries made by ex-Nazi scientist and NASA stalwart Wernher von Braun regarding what he termed "alternate gravitational solutions," or the rewriting of Newtonian physics into hyperdimensional spheres.