Okay, so of course, 1st and foremost, let me let me remind you that: I'm super excited about presenting this month's live webinar — for the members of The BatAbility Club. Which will be on December 11th at 5:00 PM London time.
To give you an idea of what my next blog posts will be about...
One upcoming topic will be: The best astronomy books for reading. Now I know you’re making a face right now, but what I mean is books on astronomy which you can sit down and actually read through. Not the usual kind of books on astronomy, that we're all used to. Which are typically organized as more of a reference.
Such as 'Burnham's Celestial Handbook An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System' by Robert Burnham Jr. Volumes one through three, I recently purchased (just as an example of the top of my head). Here's my Volume One:
Books like these, of which we have many to choose from, are not exactly the type of book one sits down to read; as in to read through. I can give you a couple of examples of decent books, which I’ve recently learned about, which would be the type I’m referring to.
For example, I make it a habit of listening to The Actual Astronomy Podcast. I usually have my Echo Dot play it (a.k.a. Alexa). I find it very convenient to listen to it that way, while I’m doing other things. From time to time I learn of new and/or interesting books mentioned on the podcast, oftentimes by guests, etc...
The 1st example I recall, is the book entitled 'The Universe In 100 Stars'. I ordered it, and it arrived today (12/7/23). It looks even more interesting than I expected - Thumbs up!
On one particular episode (#380), the guest was David Chapman (one of my fav guests), he gave a neat description of this unique book, 'The Glass Universe: How The Ladies of The Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of The Stars' and had I not been listening to that podcast – I might not have known about it.
I am sure you all already know this, but just in case: If you happen to have a Kindle (Fire), many times, you can request to have a sample of the book, sent to your Kindle Fire to check out, before you buy. I do it all the time!
Which reminds me, if you happen to have/or are a member of Amazon Prime – you get to enjoy one of my favorite perks, which is: being able to get older/free books sent to your Kindle fire for reading. I stumbled upon a title, which I’m reading now (and enjoying so far) titled ‘Great astronomers’ by Ball, Robert S. (Robert Stawell).
It’s really pretty good! It’s starts with Ptolemy and goes all the way to Adams…
Now, I could go on and on about this book but since it’s freely available, I won’t. However, I will tell you that it may also be found online, by using resources, such as:
archive.org, gutenberg.org, and Google books << Each of those links will take you directly to the (free) 'Great Astronomers' book. The Project Gutenberg link gives you an almost overwhelming number of choices of formats, to get the book in - All free. Can't beat that!
Each of the links above, will provide the book with illustrations, by the way. You may even find other versions online, and they will show the very nice, and engaging illustrations - Of famous observatories, ancient sketches, as well as ancient instruments, and telescopes.
Please note: The Kindle version, available for free via Amazon, does not show these illustrations (although they are listed, near the table of contents). All in all this is a very good example of the kind of book(s) I’d like to track down.
Stay, tuned, coming up next will be:
An outstanding series of books I recently came across: 'Objects in the Heavens' - Awesome books!
Until then,
Clear skies!
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