300 Astronomical Objects: A Visual Reference to the Universe

The book is a comprehensive collection of space shots taken by various instruments. It is loaded with basic data of distance, size and location. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the space exploration and astronomical data, short of regular astronomic catalogs. I consider it a wonderful gift to a young reader.

This is a handy, colorful book that helps astronomers understand some of the many objects they can view in the night sky. Most people can look at these objects through their backyard telescope but never have the clarity of super powerful space telescopes or other means of viewing these objects. The book shows these things in all their colorful glory. Each object is also introduced with a concise summary that gives the reader relevant knowledge of what the object is and its history. This is a small book so it may not be a coffee table book, but it still has value to the amatuer astronomer or the casual person interested in the universe around us.

For anyone with a layman's interest in all things astronomical, this book does well to provide magnificent pictures with concise, informative descriptions of a very wide range of objects. Published in 2006, it contains much modern material and therein lies its interest - it is not just replaying information covered in the existing books and recent magazines. Personally, I learned a good deal. This book is mostly about what scientists observe - concentrating on the most remarkable. Sometimes there is a sentence or two to state the accepted physics explaining the observation; sometimes there is the frank admission that scientists do not have a good theory to explain it. "It is not known what generates Uranus's magnetic field." "Currently it is not understood why [the small Saturnian moon, Enceladus] has such a heat source within it and why the heat is concentrated at the south pole." Surely we are privileged to live in such a golden age of astronomy, blessed with myriad observations from ever more powerful instruments and probes. This book does a good job to highlight many of these and also some of the mystery that remains to be explained.

Jimie Wilkins and Robert Dunn's 300 ASTRONOMICAL OBJECTS: A VISUAL REFERENCE TO THE UNIVERSE packs in some amazing astronomical photos usually seen in much larger titles, providing an excellent introduction to each object and specific examples accompanied by one or more large photos. From a close-up of the Great Red Spot to guides to the solar system, Milky Way and more, amateur astronomers will find this an outstanding visual and factual treat which offers the convenience of a smaller format lending to take-along totes. It completes well with larger guides intended for coffee-table display.