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Reviews
The Sky Atlas: The Greatest Maps, Myths and Discoveries of the Universe by Edward Brooke-Hitching
leahopkins's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A beautifully created and very informative book. It is (for the most part) easy to understand and the collection of images and illustrations and maps really make this book one of a kind.
omipotent's review
5.0
Incredible!
My infant brain: History. Space. Science. Pictures. Oooooooooooo.
After pursuing a career in art I forgot my LOVE of space astronomy (I backed out of the amount of maths and lack of story physics would give me) but this book just won the medle of favourite books so far. Funny, enthralling, mindblowing stories of galactic breakthroughs. Puts into perspective the immense amount of time it's taken us to understand the life around us which still has so many unanswered questions. We are ants. The universe is large. We are fish in a fish pond trying to jump out of it. And how some of the scientists and astronomers and mathmetitians actually figured out these theories is beyond me. Sitting in a room just thinking "how can I calculate the motion of the moon, sitting here in my Greek house without a telescope" 'oh I know!' ????????????? How they got from Q to A. Is a genius that dwarfs my understanding.
My infant brain: History. Space. Science. Pictures. Oooooooooooo.
After pursuing a career in art I forgot my LOVE of space astronomy (I backed out of the amount of maths and lack of story physics would give me) but this book just won the medle of favourite books so far. Funny, enthralling, mindblowing stories of galactic breakthroughs. Puts into perspective the immense amount of time it's taken us to understand the life around us which still has so many unanswered questions. We are ants. The universe is large. We are fish in a fish pond trying to jump out of it. And how some of the scientists and astronomers and mathmetitians actually figured out these theories is beyond me. Sitting in a room just thinking "how can I calculate the motion of the moon, sitting here in my Greek house without a telescope" 'oh I know!' ????????????? How they got from Q to A. Is a genius that dwarfs my understanding.
omg_pear's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I really enjoyed learning about the history of sky exploration and astronomy. I also really enjoyed how the book was broken up into parts. It got 4 stars because sometimes I just didn’t understand what the book was talking about but that’s just a me problem.
spaceyboy's review
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
Beautiful images. Tells the history of astronomy from the beginning to now! Interesting and easy to read. A great beginning book for learning about astronomy.
toad_maiden's review
3.0
A fascinating survey of the history of astronomy, with a focus on astronomical image-making.
c8_19's review
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
I picked this up on a whim when I was browsing at my library, and the selling point for me was the illustrations and pictures, which might sound childish but was exactly what my brain needed. And the star charts were really lovely!
This was a crash course in astronomy through the ages, filled with fun facts and curiosities. The content was rather abbreviated, but I gathered that was kind of the intention. So, this serves well as a good "starting off" text that can point you in other directions regarding which historical figures or theories are key to understanding how the stars have shaped peoples since the beginning of time (or, at least, documented time).
It shied away from a lot of the juicy stuff, though, and by that I mean there's always drama when the minds clash — and we got none of it. Vague mentions of our man Copernicus vs. the Church, and Brahe losing his nose was a very minimal footnote. Or even the Herschel boy making up the "Great Moon Hoax" and leaving Victorians terrified. That felt glossed over. Again, this book was trying to cover a lot of content and did a solid job of doing a summary of a long timeline. I simply felt we could have been given a bit more depth.
This was a crash course in astronomy through the ages, filled with fun facts and curiosities. The content was rather abbreviated, but I gathered that was kind of the intention. So, this serves well as a good "starting off" text that can point you in other directions regarding which historical figures or theories are key to understanding how the stars have shaped peoples since the beginning of time (or, at least, documented time).
It shied away from a lot of the juicy stuff, though, and by that I mean there's always drama when the minds clash — and we got none of it. Vague mentions of our man Copernicus vs. the Church, and Brahe losing his nose was a very minimal footnote. Or even the Herschel boy making up the "Great Moon Hoax" and leaving Victorians terrified. That felt glossed over. Again, this book was trying to cover a lot of content and did a solid job of doing a summary of a long timeline. I simply felt we could have been given a bit more depth.