Space on my bookshelves

Actually I am not sure what a fetish oddball is either...binder fetish were the main words but oddball followed as playful jabberwocky words in response to the passionate counterarguments that just came out of my mouth (or fingers?) with a delirious instinct which I didnt realise it was going to be taken as offense.  So sorry to Mike and Sumitra, particularly Sumitra as it seems it had going by that post.

So apologies again as I diminish into the west to end The Great Binder War

Didn't take offence at all, Tej.... all good banter!

Right... after the great ring-binder fetish scandal of 2014, it's time to get this thread back on track, I think! 😉

First, on an earlier message, Andy mentioned a book called "Starlight Detectives: How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe". I've now had a chance to read this book, and it's a decent book. However, I think it should be retitled "How American Astronomers... discovered the Modern Universe"!! Anything outside the US is almost mentioned in passing, and it gets a little irritating at times. Still, I'd recommend it, because it pretty well written... just try to ignore (as much as you can) the outrageous American bias.

Another recommendation from me... I'd mentioned "Full Moon" previously... but, in my opinion, there is no better atlas of the Moon than "The Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas". Superbly photographed, with every lunar feature explained in great detail. I love using this book when observing the Moon... though, as a fairly weighty "coffee-table" sized book, it's not really practical to take out in the field. A back-garden book... or one to dip into when planning your observing session.

Incidentally Tej, I do share your concerns over the size of "Turn Left at Orion". My copy is around 30x25cm, so not really practical to take to remote observing sessions if you are trying to travel light (as I know you do). There is the "Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas" which, at 20x15cm, is a bit more practical, but it only contains star maps (albeit some really clear ones) and doesn't have the "star-hopping" instructions of "Turn Left at Orion". Still, it's an option... oh, except... it's in a ring-binding 😉

No offence - as I said I thought I'd join in on the fun with the banter as well on how odd this debate had turned.

My book must be as big as everyone else's I guess. I think it's big as well, that's why I have made copies of certain pages I like to take with me. It's not ideal, but that's what I thought of doing.

I wish it were in A5 format though, still ring bound 😉 so that you can have it opened flat with the map on one side and the text on the other. I guess it would make it a bit thick though so if I could suggest a new format, it would be A5 or thereabouts, and in seasonal volumes, and I'd only take the volume I need depending on the time of year. A shame I'm not the publisher!

Note that the companion website has nice things to print before travelling (if you don't have 3G where you are) - they are well organised too. As you'll guess, I put them in my ring binder :-P... But one could equally use spine bars!

In addition, there is most of the book on Google Books.

I wish there was an ePub to read on a tablet. I've seen several night mode apps, so it would not be too bad during an observing session.

Didn't know about the companion website to "Turn Left at Orion"... very useful... particularly the larger scale "Telrad" views that don't make it into the book. I shall be using some of these!

I agree, very useful!

I do enjoy it when books make a companion website/blog to keep the reader interested or involved. Very clever. Especially when there are things that don't fit in a book - size or interactive media etc.

Some books have a companion app, although I've stopped downloading them as I was just running out of space!

PS. Mike - I can't seem to quote anymore

PPS. I'll put this link on the Useful link sub!

I can’t seem to quote anymore

Looks like you can quote when using the "Text" editor, but not the "Visual" editor. I'll look into it.

Looks like you can quote when using the “Text” editor, but not the “Visual” editor. I’ll look into it.

Oh Yes! 🙂
I did switch from Text to visual yesterday. I was confused. Thanks!

Marek Kukula's book review in The Spectator of Galileo’s Telescope: A European Story

A Guardian article written by Nobel Laureate physicist Steven Weinberg detailing what he regards as the best 13 science books "for the general reader". The article also talks a bit about how scientific writing has evolved over the years.

By the way, Weinberg is the author of what I thought was an excellent book, To Explain the World: The discovery of modern science. My review of it was published in the May issue of Astronomy Now (they may eventually post it online!).