The Universe Unveiled: Instruments and Images Through History

Stephenson, Bruce; Bolt, Marvin; Friedman, Anna Felicity

ISBN 10: 052179143X / ISBN 13: 9780521791434

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 052179143X-3-26565506

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Universe Unveiled: Instruments and ...

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis:

The Universe Unveiled documents the human desire through history to explore and understand our world. Taking a unique approach, it focuses on the instruments, books, and maps people have created to decipher the Universe from the late fifteenth through to the nineteenth century. Throughout, the book is richly illustrated with over 270 full-color images, including those of rare and unusual artifacts from all over the world kept in the world-renowned collection at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago. With clear and informative text, it covers our discovery of Space and Time, and our ever-expanding understanding of Earth and the Heavens, describing in particular the shift from an Earth-centered to a Sun-centered view of the Universe, and the mapping of the stars using telescopes. It also examines the technologies of navigation and of measuring and mapping the Earth, as well as the discovery of ways to keep time.

Review:

The Universe Unveiled is a dazzling catalogue of the most beautiful, ancient, and important objects from the Adler (the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere) and other museums. Alongside hundreds of gorgeous, clear photographs, they have written a text that gives a real, though brief, idea of how the instruments, maps, and charts were actually used. At the Adler Planetarium in Chicago Stephenson, Bolt, and Friedman help curate one of the best collections of astronomy instruments in the world. Sextant, octant, armillary sphere; sundial, moondial, astrolabe. Pre-modern scientific instruments seem romantic and mysterious. Romantic because they can be very beautiful, works of art the like of which cannot be found among more practical, goal-oriented modern instruments. Mysterious because most of us no longer have any idea which instruments were which, or how they were used.

Most of the objects were made in Europe between 1450 and 1800, but the authors do a creditable job of discussing Chinese and Islamic astronomy. Altogether, the book is a rare combination of eye candy and intellectual nutrition, which could only really be bettered if it were packaged with the actual instruments. As is, it can make your hands itch with a kind of tactile curiosity while it caters to your eyes and mind. --Mary Ellen Curtin