What's Out There: Images from Here to the Edge of the Universe

Very happy with the photos but they left out the most important one of all - the Deep Field image. How did they make that mistake!!

The pictures are spectacular and the text is informative without overwhelming. Just right for a leisurely journey through the universe.

Pros - Lots of great photos with clear simple text, well organized comprehensive chapters (eg, nebulas, stars, planets, galaxies ....) in a medium sized compact binding. Cons - Soft bound and layed out so several of the stunning pictures are split between the pages. Overall a well thought out and produced book, a nice balance of quality, and quantity, handy size and usefulness.

The visible and invisible wonders of the universe sure can make a human being feel small and insignificant. This book is a treasure of mindboggling images from the most recent space probes and earthbound telescopes, plus a smattering of classics from the age of exploration in the 60s and 70s. There are even a few great shots by volunteers and amateur astronomers. The book ranges from the latest visual knowledge of our own solar system (my personal favorite shots include ring-glow on the dark side of Saturn and what we saw of the surface of Titan in 2005), to the most outrageous galactic clusters and colorful nebula millions of light years away. In particular, the eye-popping nebulas really make one realize how bland and average our cosmic neighborhood is. The text accompanying the photos is mostly pretty good, but the end of the book does provide a bonus with descriptions of all the equipment that has been used to capture the shots, from super-advanced earth observatories to a variety of space-travelling photo factories, of which the famous Hubble Telescope is just one. This book is a great conversation piece for those with cosmos-sized thoughts. [~doomsdayer520~]

The collection of photographs in this book is spectacular, and that is appropriate for a book which shows us our universe and beyond. The text is also spectacular in it's clarity and precision. If lay people like me want a glimpse of the beyond, and an understandable explanation of it, this is a great book. I recommend it for everyone from 4th grade (my grandson was blown away by the photos) to astroscientist (some of whom contributed). Curt Thorpe