Category: Book Reviews

Acting as a surrogate umbilical cord between society and its offspring, live television emissions connected the family’s living room to the first human footsteps upon the Moon. Dwight Steven-Boniecki’s book “Live TV from the Moon” faithfully details the technical marvels that kept this connection functioning and the families entertained.

As much as the lunar program was a huge new endeavour for humankind, broadcast television was also making an impact. Where the family room was a place for well acquainted friends to come together, with television’s introduction, the room had to accommodate visitors and images from anywhere on planet Earth. Soon, people learned to love Lucy even though they had never met her. Behind this expansive connectivity was a marvel of electronic transmission that was needing to be extended to the Moon far above Earth.

The marvel of electronic emissions had barely been introduced into the world and people were already building space ships. Such a challenge didn’t slow up our forebears as this book shows with its presentation of the technical marvels of the in-flight camera system and the Earth bound scan converters. Principally the book’s a redoing of the engineering challenge of meshing the space capsule’s physical requirements (e.g. low mass allowance, high light contrast, poor heat rejection) with the existing, nascent Earth transmission service. While perhaps at times a bit dry and overly descriptive, the descriptions show the advancement in technology from low fidelity black and white of the early parts of the Apollo program through to the full colour high contrast remote control units of the later parts. The technical details aren’t overly complex but as this is the focus of the book you will see a fair amount.

As well, this book includes other, societal aspects. These mostly are the efforts to have television be defined as an essential part of the lunar flight as well as the extremely variable public interest given to the results. It shows that dramas as with Apollo 13 certainly kept people’s interest fixated; but recall that the event was extended over many days and with very little changing on the video. This and others are seen as quite dry for the average television viewer as little to nothing happened in front of the camera lens. Hence, the television camera and its emission are seen to have a love-hate relationship with the viewers. Nevertheless, this book does push the reader to contemplate the advantages of live television and the appreciation and attention span of the average member of society.

While the written portion of the book does great justice to the topic, the included
DVD is off the mark. I greatly expected to see many of the historical film clips perhaps doctored up to look better with current technology. Rather, aside for the launch of the last few lunar modules from the Moon’s surface, there’s little historical video. The book includes many pictures (frame grabs) and the DVD has some slide shows of stills (other grabs) but given the topic, I would have valued some additions along these lines rather than searching the Internet.
Still, this is a book about the television technology that had to grow up very quickly as more and more demands were placed upon it. Dwight Steven-Boniecki doesn’t let the reader forget this. In “Live TV From the Moon” he keeps you in the laboratory seeing the equipment tests, with the managers choosing formats and functions and with the viewer enjoying the enthrallment of human space travel. With such demands, it’s no wonder that space travel and television have matured so quickly.

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[/caption]The end of the space shuttle’s service life lies nigh before us. There’s no surprise then that reviews are coming out as with Robert Adamcik’s “Voyages of Discovery: The Missions of United States Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) 1984-2011“. This book’s faithful compilation of the shuttle, mission by mission, reminds us that we are a successful space faring species with high potential.

Billed as the first production orbiter, Discovery was optimized to haul cargo from the Earth’s surface up to low Earth orbit. Its somewhat extended 5 year build time from about 1979 to 1984 was followed up with 27 years of service. During its operational time, the shuttle will have flown to orbit a total of 39 times. The future tense is appropriate as the shuttle awaits it final flight in early 2011.

The book’s account of this shuttle’s operations is succinct and thorough. The author allocates a chapter to each mission and each chapter lies in chronological order. Each chapters’ format is routine; the mission title, a paragraph or two on noteworthy issues, then crew identities, shuttle payload and usually a paragraph describing each day in orbit. While not particularly imaginative, this makes for a business like rendition of this shuttle’s flights.

Many small black and white pictures greatly add to the prose. Most are of the Discovery whether taking off, in flight or landing. Many exciting pictures of roving astronauts or drifting satellites demonstrate the business end of the orbiter. As well, each chapter includes a copy of the mission patch and many have a posed picture with all the crew members or with a crew member working in the low gravity environment. Often the pictures serve to demonstrate a point in the adjoining text whether a woodpecker damaging the shuttle before flight or a flat tire experienced after landing. In all, these visual treats wonderfully spice up the pages.

Yet, this book does leave some questions. Paramount is “Why prepare a book compiling all the missions when this shuttle has at least one more to do?”. And, “Why was a synopsis created for the Discovery rather than any of the other shuttles?”. Most of perplexing of all though is the book’s lack of a summary. With the shuttle’s service life ending and having completed 39 missions, it needs an all-round perspective on the shuttle’s contributions to humanity. Rather, the book makes for an effective reference for the mission of Discovery but not for a consideration of the shuttle’s over-arching value.

Currently, we are seeing many new opportunities arise in space travel; whether private launch vehicles or newly successful national space agencies. Changes will continue as we learn from our experiences and profit from new capabilities. The shuttle Discovery, ably presented by Robert Adamcik in his book “Voyages of Discovery: The Missions of United States Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103) 1984-2011” shows how one vehicle was a robust link in the change. Even as the shuttle program winds down, changes present new opportunities for us to adventure into space.

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As Earth’s Moon gently passes across the night sky, Earth bound planners try to make it a more immediate part of our future. NASAs two recent lunar orbiters will bring us wonderful new information but there are still lots of benefit that we can derive from the earlier Apollo missions. Jim Bell’s book “Moon 3-D, The Lunar Surface Comes to Life” is one that can provide just that and still appeal to a large audience. And, everyone may just come away with a big, happy, knowing smile on their face.

As the title boldly states, this book has three dimensional images within its covers! The technology is simple. Red is for the left eye and blue-green is for the right. Thus, the reader can simply hold the specially designed cover up to their face, look toward the full page pictures and a sense of three dimensions leaps out. Though the ‘special design’ may sound exotic, it is simply three well placed holes; the top left for the left eye, the top right for the right eye and a very handy lower centre hole for the nose. This works amazingly well, even while wearing glasses.

So, with the simple yet effective technology, what about the pictures? Well nearly all are of the lunar surface. There are craters, ridges, and rilles to show off the wonderful vista. And, sometimes the scenery includes astronauts, landers and equipment. Aside from being in chronological order, there’s no real sense of meaning or understanding. Each is superb, at least for the Moon buff, but it’s apparent that the pictures were originally meant for scientific study. Hence, while the author has chosen ones with great appeal, the reader will likely get an impression that they’ve reviewing the results of a small scale geological survey.

Of course with the special cover being fixed to the book, only half the pages have 3-D images. Opposite pages have a normal picture that relates to the 3-D image. A couple of paragraphs of explanatory text complete the presentation. The only exception is for the first forty or so pages that contain brief essays recalling the Apollo missions and one on current endeavours.

Now you can blame campy cinematic movies but 3-D usually equates to feelings of silly and fun times. Sticking your face into the cover of a book while looking at the pictures in the book is kind of silly but it is also fun. Not surprisingly, this is the first book that I’ve had youths ask to borrow from me. They were attracted by the silly, fun, odd presentation. They laughed about the way the depth appeared from nowhere. They were intrigued and they stayed with it, at least for awhile. So, if you want to include a bit of silly, fun in your home library or beguile youngsters into space sciences, this is the book for you.

Having probes from Europe, Japan and the United States recently or currently visiting the Moon builds our anticipation. Sometimes it helps to put the whole surface into perspective and Jim Bell enables this through his book “Moon 3-D The Lunar Surface Comes to Life“. Though looking through a book’s cover may seem somewhat silly, it certainly puts the Moon into wonderful view.

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Take a layer off a Matryoshka doll and you find more of the same. Try to answer questions about a mysterious satellite of Saturn and more questions come bubbling up to the surface. Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton in their book “Titan Unveiled – Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored” treat the reader to this common scientific dilemma. In it, we see that the recent Cassini-Huygens mission gave us many answers to many questions but leaves a whole lot more just awaiting.

The tiny moon Titan orbits its giant mother planet Saturn. Our distant Sun shines so dimly at its distance that it can have no appreciable effect. But, some unidentified source of energy effects Titan’s surface. We know this because of the spectacular terrain that’s eerily evocative of Earth. Coastlines, volcanic mounts and great sand dunes appear to grace every view. This apparently dynamic surface may lead to other terrestrial similarities and may point to terrestrial analogues. This potential gave rise to the mission to Saturn and, in its own way, to this book.

This book has three intermingling tracts: Titan and its physical details, the Cassini-Huygens mission, and an author’s personal travails with the mission and space exploration. The Titan tract includes a review of the growth of knowledge regarding this moon. Particularly, there’s concepts drawn from the Voyageur probes as well as space based and land based telescopes. These include the magnetosphere, atmosphere and surface reflectivity. The accumulated knowledge is shown to be a necessary precursor to the mission and in particular to the Huygens lander.

The second tract looks at the Cassin-Huygens mission, its history, funding, scientific payload and initial arrival at the Saturn system. The writing is current to about July 2006, or Cassini orbit T16. Though the book has some well-known detail, such as the scientific payload, for the most part it looks at the processes, whether the need for continual political support, constant adaptation to modifications and the need for patience during the long flight out. These are interesting but don’t really pertain to the unveiling of Titan.

Sections that have sub-titles such as “Ralph’s Log, August 1994” easily identify the third tract. These also seem out of place as they exhibit a more personal interest rather than a exposition of Titan. In the logs are descriptions of breaking into rooms, threading wires through instruments and traveling to conferences. While adding a distraction, they may or may not be to the reader’s liking.

These three tracts constitute the majority of the book and also exhibit the book’s main weakness. That is, rather than unveiling Titan to the average reader, it is a personal narrative regarding a personal interest. Further, by finishing the writing before the end of the Cassini-Huygens mission, the reader should wonder, “why now, what’s the rush, what’s been left out?” Also diminishing the book are the many but small images. Though some have fantastic shapes, such as one of the cat’s claws at the feature Shikoku, they’re usually quite small and don’t do justice to the concept of unveiling. Thus, though entertaining, the book never really unveils Titan in a succinct manner.

This book does excel as a personal narrative of a scientist’s involvement in one of our grandest research endeavours. Equally, it will well satisfy someone who’s interested in the background of the Cassini-Huygen mission and especially the early results from its view of Titan. But, I expect that those who want a greater amount of detail of Titan will need other, more academic sources to obtain a better reference.

We are only beginning to appreciate the many interdependent physical properties that exist on Earth. Yet, we see similarities wherever we look. The book “Titan Unveiled – Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored” by Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton shows how advancing our knowledge of a distant satellite that orbits a distant planet has provided a special benefit to us on Earth.

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The National Geographic Society publishes popular accounts of a vast quantity of information related to the natural sciences. The society has a new space themed book by Howard Schneider entitled ‘Backyard Guide to the Night Sky‘. And, true to form, in it is a large quantity of information just ready for consumption by the average reader.

This smaller format soft cover book touches on just about everything above the Earth’s surface. Within it are details from the Earth’s troposphere to its exosphere, the planet Mercury to the Ort clouds and the constellations Andromeda to Virgo. With each description, the reader can understand a bit more of the subject and often view an excellently chosen, vibrant, adjoining illustration. The book’s closing pages discuss the big bang and deep sky astronomy to complete this book’s exposé on the night sky.

With a simple yet effective table of contents and a useful index, this well entitled guide serves as a handy reference to the amateur enthusiast. It’s perfect for an evening’s entertainment at a cottage, some reflective pondering while sitting in a back yard or even for daytime studying to broadening one’s knowledge of our existence.

The downside to trying to be such an exhaustive reference is that the book’s content lacks any sort of depth. For example, it mentions that analysts use spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition of stars. And, that is the complete notation of spectroscopy. Or, it mentions that the eye has rods and cones that effect visibility but not how. As well, the book targets the readers living in the northern hemisphere, as some southern constellations are not included. But, shortcomings are expected when a book aims to satisfy a large audience by choosing breadth over depth.

Yet, true to form with other National Geographic Society publications, this book has a rich presentation. Diagrams, photographs and tables vividly embellish the paragraphs. Four somewhat small sky charts show the position of some of the brightest stars. As well, star tables introduce the reader to each constellation’s main components. With this book, there’s no need to go searching elsewhere for many of the facts and figures regarding our night sky.

For some light entertainment, Howard Schneider’s book ‘Backyard Guide to Night Sky‘ provides the reader with a pleasant, enjoyable and fact-filled reference. It will be a useful guide that may even point the direction to a long, fun-filled and rewarding past time.

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Passion drives us to do things beyond mere instinctive survival. Varied and distinct, these pastimes can absorb hours and days. The night sky beckons many even though, or perhaps, because they will never be able to visit. Stephen James O’Meara’s book “Exploring the Solar System with Binoculars, A Beginner’s Guide to the Sun, Moon, and Planets” is testament to one man’s affliction with the shapes and colours that continually transcend the velvet backdrop of space. Through his passion, the book draws the reader into an ever changing, lively night time display.

The book’s title and subtitle succinctly frame the book’s contents. Between the covers, the reader will learn of methods to accurately and safely see features of our solar system. Whether sunspots on the Sun, mares on the Moon or fireballs from nowhere, there are subjects galore to entice the beginner to spend just another five minutes looking upwards. In addition, the book details both methods and tricks to get the most out of the time spent viewing. In particular though, it lists distinguishing characteristics of the subject whether colour, shape or sound. A diamond ring from an eclipse, a crescent of Venus or a sword slicing as from a comet are just some of the many vibrant distinctions brought to the reader’s attention throughout this book.

While the descriptions and facts should ably answer the many questions of the beginner, the book’s anecdotal passages make this publication shine. The author shares his passion through selections describing his emotions such as ‘I saw the spirit of the fireball dancing on its grave’ when describing an aerial explosion. The mood is continually heightened such a Tolstoy character who in ‘rapture and his eyes wet with tears, contemplated the radiant stare’ for the comet of 1812 or Agesinax’s ‘all round about environed with fire she is illumined’ to describe the Moon. These historical connections and the many references to ongoing research tells the reader that they share the wonder of the grandeur and complexity of Earth’s immediate neighbourhood.

A passion to explore the night sky burns in the hearts of many. Not knowing where to start or how to share this longing is no impediment. With bare eye or inexpensive binoculars, Stephen James O’Meara’s book “Exploring the Solar System with Binoculars” will guide you to satisfy your feelings.

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Written by Mark Mortimer