cover image The Universe and How to See It

The Universe and How to See It

Giles Sparrow. Reader's Digest Association, $32.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-7621-0348-5

Reader's Digest presents The Universe and How to See It: A Practical Guide to Viewing and Understanding the Night Sky, Giles Sparrow's accessible survey of the firmament as seen from terra firma. With color photographs and illustrations on every page (300 all together), the book starts with the solar system, its smallest area of concern, and proceeds through the Milky Way and beyond to other galaxies. Sparrow (DK Space Encyclopedia) decodes constellation and sky maps, explains the origins and development of our galaxy and its contents, describes different galactic formations (elliptical galaxies, colliding galaxies, etc.) in short, he imparts a comprehensive essential grasp of astronomy. Serious amateur astronomers will be on cloud nine. (Oct.)