Book Review
Title: The Ultimate Guide to Stargazing
Author: Gregg D. Thompson
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: ****
Review: As this book is a bind-up of 4 volumes on stargazing aimed at everyone from novices through to experts, I am only reviewing selected chapters that are aimed more for ‘beginners’ like me. Firstly, I did like that the author has given careful thought to helping us ‘newbies’ with no prior knowledge or experience of stargazing.
I first opted to read chapters from Volume 2, which caught my eye when perusing the ‘contents.’ I was intrigued to see what the author would show me about sky phenomena, the planets, and those other interesting titbits I recall from my school days.
Before I get into the details of my review, let’s clarify what else these four hefty books cover.
For those readers aiming to get into practical astronomy, Volume 1 offers a full glossary of terms, a guide to viewing equipment and advice on documenting your observations. This is brilliant for beginners keen to get into the ‘hands-on’ side of observing the heavens.
The chapter which looks at sky phenomena ‘closer to home’ is most thought-provoking as it focuses on phenomena that are related to how the Earth moves around the Sun and the strange things that occur in our atmosphere.
Then I realized Volume 1 is filled with a variety of personal experiences from the author himself which really piqued my interest. Volume 3 delves into the wider universe including chapters on the Milky Way, galaxies and much more. Finally, Volume 4 is primarily about the big questions that are unresolved in cosmology; something more appreciated by the ‘advanced’ stargazer?
Perhaps the most impactful lesson I learned was something I had heard of before but didn’t really understand – Milankovitch Cycles. Understanding these cycles allows us to get some insight into the real reason why climate always changes on earth. While this section seems difficult to understand at first, all you have to remember is that the Earth’s orbit is not perfectly circular – it changes from nearly circular to more elongated. It is these constant changes in position and distance from the sun and each other that impacts the conditions (climate) felt on each planet. Even Mars experiences a melting ice cap!
The term to remember here is ellipticity – which means the degree of deviation from circularity – as it appears a lot in this section. I was fascinated to learn that it takes tens of thousands of years for the Earth’s orbit to stretch from nearly circular to its maximum ellipticity, and at its maximum ellipticity, the Earth is at its furthest point away from the Sun, which is what causes Ice Ages to occur.
Learning about phenomena like the green flash, rainbow stars and much more was exhilarating especially when you realise, they occur on a regular basis, you only need to be in the right place at the right time in order to see them!
There is so much included in these chapters, it really is astounding, for example, in the section on auroras, it not only includes what they are but also how they are formed along with when and where to see them.
I must also say that the images included in these sections are stunningly beautiful. They do so well convey the majesty and extraordinary beauty of these moments. There are also numerous links in these sections to other parts of the book that go further in-depth on specific points, so you don’t have to wait to get to those sections – if you want to learn more you can just jump ahead to them.
For me, one of the greatest aspects of this book are the sections in blue. These sections are stories and experiences from the author’s life which hugely changes the feel of this book.
I sense without these sections it would feel like a textbook, but these nuggets of personal insight from the author witnessed first-hand, allows the reader to sense that these experiences do happen to anyone.
Diving deeper into this colossus of a book, I then was tempted to read and review chapter 23 of Volume 2 entitled The Great Jovian System, which is about Jupiter. Of course, there are also chapters on all the other planets which grabbed my interest. But, I guess we all come at this subject with preconceptions and Jupiter has long intrigued me.
As we all know, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and it is also one of the Gas Giants alongside Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. Learning about the planets’ history and makeup compared to Earth had me marvelling at the enormous differences in scale. For example, I had never realised that Jupiter has a diameter 11x that of Earth and mass 300x of Earth, which is truly staggering.
Further details about the planet will also amaze, for example, Jupiter has over 60+ moons, the most well-known of Jupiter’s moons are Io, Europa, and Callisto. Jupiter also has the biggest moon in our solar system, Ganymede.
I recall being taught a little of the planets at school, but Gregg Thompson’s zest for his subject is infectious and you can’t help viewing these strange worlds with refreshed eyes.
The author doesn’t just include lots of detail on Jupiter, there is plenty on the Galilean moons as well. For example, Io is covered in over 400 active volcanoes that are continually erupting and images of this have been captured brilliantly by NASA. As with all the images in this book, these are stunning. Almost like an encyclopedia, these four volumes document not only the universe but much more than that, they also document our history of understanding the universe around us. Which is quite a thought, even a decade ago we had only a fraction of the knowledge of these planets that the author now puts in our hands.
I must also comment on the chapter on Mars, as this chapter has the most stunning and aesthetically pleasing images I have ever seen. From the probe images of the planet and its surface, to the frozen sand dunes and my personal favourite the ice spiders. These unique patterns are formed when water moving under the surface freezes giving a spider web effect to the crystal formations. However, the pinnacle has to be the 3D images. I didn’t know it was possible to put 3D images into an e-book, but they are truly stunning. While you can view the images without 3D glasses, you miss out on the added depth. There are some images when viewed with 3D glasses that make you feel like you are standing on the surface of the red planet and looking towards a distant horizon, or down into incredibly deep canyons. - even if it is only for a moment.
Mars like Jupiter also has some enormous volcanoes, the largest of these is Mons Olympus and the 3D images of this volcano really give some scale to its enormity. I can honestly say even if you have zero interest in stargazing or space you should read this book just to see the breath-taking images. I also enjoyed how the author referred to The Martian movie in this chapter and in a further chapter (Chapter 36) he goes into detail about how difficult it would be in reality to send a manned mission to Mars and back.
Even in the chapter about the outer solar system, the surprises don’t stop! It was in this chapter that I realised that the solar system, and indeed the universe itself, is constantly evolving, as is our understanding of it. For instance, When I was a child, Pluto was a planet, but it has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet. Likewise, Ceres, which is the largest asteroid in the Inner Asteroid Belt, has been upgraded and reclassified as a dwarf planet because it is only 50km under the 1000km diameter requirement to be a dwarf planet. While talking about the outer solar system it is impossible to bypass Pluto, I was surprised to see so many breath-taking colour images of Pluto captured by the New Horizons probe in 2016. They show Pluto in stunning resolution, the likes of which no one had ever imagined seeing on such a cold world before this encounter. Being able to see Pluto’s terrain up close and in 3D was just indescribable and it is something I probably would never have seen if I didn’t read this book.
Even The section on comets is filled with so much mind-bending information that few people would know. Together with the author’s own observations, we are given interesting histories about comets and asteroids, surprising scientific discoveries, glorious images, and close-ups that bring these worlds to life.
Gregg Thompson does an incredible job in bringing the beauty, majesty, and phenomena of the universe right to your fingertips where you can not only read about them but also see them with your own eyes. The author’s personal touches interspersed throughout evoke an emotional reaction in any reader, making The Ultimate Guide to Stargazing a felt experience rather than simply a good read.
Whether you are an experienced stargazer or a beginner like me wanting a mix of education and entertainment about realms beyond the stars, then I highly recommend you pick this up as soon as you can.
Buy it here.
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