Astro-related book list

[AlexG]

With Christmas coming I thought people might like to chip in with their best astro-related books with a short comment on why they are good.

Not just the 'Turn left at Orion' or 'Guide to the Night Sky" manuals which you keep near the telescope, but also books about the history of astronomy, or the science or the characters behind the discoveries.

So I will kick it off with "The Book Nobody Read" by Owen Gingerich, which I just found in the library. It's about Nicolaus Copernicus's 1543 Revolutions book which placed the sun not the earth at the centre of the universe for the first time. Gingerich became obsessed with the book and this is about his 30 years detective work to search out and examine every copy of the book still in existence around the world.

And he mentions another too Arthur Koestler's The Sleepwalkers, which traces the understanding of the heavens from the ancient Greeks through Galileo and Copernicus to 20th century.

[barkis]

There is a book I would like to buy, but in hardcover it is £90 softcover £50 from Amazon.

It's called the Lord of Uraniborg, a biography of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Tycho was one of the father of modern astronomy, famed alchemist and litterateur of the sixteenth-century Danish Renaissance.

Probably not everyones cup of tea, but I was fascinated by this mans llife. I would love to visit the site of his observatory on Hven.

If anyone is keen on the history of astronomy, then you would have to include Tycho.

I think sir Patrick pronounces his name tuko. I have merely written it as he sounds it. Perhaps one of the next guys lucky enough to visit the great one, could confirm that for me, because I am going on heresay.

Ron.

PS. I just had delivered today, SPACE THE FIRST 50 YEARS. A celebration with Sir Patrick Moore and H.J.P. Arnold. This book came as a free gift when I booked a years subscription to the Sky at Night magazine. I have not started to read it yet.

[GazOC]

For the practical astronomer, any of the 3 Stephen O'Meara 'Companion' books. Dorlling Kinsleys "Universe" is also a great (and good looking) book for someone starting out.

Ron,

I've got a book called "From Thanes to Kepler" on the history of astronomy, its decent if a little dry.