[Friends_of_SSASTROS] It's been cloudy lately...

[Alden Wells]

Mike:

I read it years ago. Yes, it was very interesting.

A.W. 


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 30, 2024, at 1:48 PM, Mike McCabe <cartech2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> ...so what is an astronomy enthusiast to do? Why, read of course!
> 
> Book Review – Parallax, by Alan Hirshfeld
> 
> Since time immemorial humans have sought to understand the scale of the cosmos and their place in it. Records from as far back as Archimedes and Aristarchus reflect their postulations on the matter, and virtually every great thinker since has weighed in on the subject in some way, shape or form.
> 
> The key to understanding the scale of the universe and Earth’s place in it, they all knew, was to somehow figure out the distance to the stars. This key element proved to be one of the most elusive quarries to capture, and even once the telescope was invented it proved no mean feat to achieve. In fact it wouldn’t be until the mid-19th century that the quest to find the distance to a star would be conquered, and even beyond that it would take until the late 20th century to see the distance a broad group of stars measured.
> 
> In his book Parallax, Dr. Alan Hirshfeld weaves a tale of mystery, suspense, adventure and intrigue as he looks back at the struggle to figure out exactly what it would take to accurately measure the distance to a star, and how we finally got there. Virtually every astronomer of note took a stab at it from the invention of the telescope in the early 1600’s, up until the mid-1800’s when it was finally achieved. He delves into the lives and worlds of all these men of science, as well as the folks who crafted the instruments that finally made the task possible. Hirshfeld’s research is impeccable, and his writing style engaging and smooth flowing.  This book is a must-read for any astronomy history buff, and any amateur astronomer will gain a keener understanding of their hobby from the contents of this tome.
> 
> <1706640362084blob.jpg>
> 
> You can still buy the book new in hardcover for about $20, and used in both hard cover and paperback at a multitude of sites for pennies on the dollar. Of course there’s also the local library network which may be able to secure a copy for you.
> Mike’s Rating: Highly Recommended Reading
> 
> 
> 
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