Dennis Mammana

This volume traces the history of astronomy from prehistoric times up to the present era of space exploration. Undoubtedly, its strongest feature is the beautiful and numerous illustrations. Many of these are color photographs which are displayed to best advantage on the large 8 x 14 pages. The subjects of the illustrations range from ancient Babylonian clay tablets to Renaissance paintings to spacecraft close-ups of planets and their satellites. Although the author has some credentials in astronomy, his text is unfortunately brief and very simplistic. Compared to recent works like Herbert Friedman's The Astronomer's Universe ( LJ 4/15/90) and Philip S. Harrington's Touring the Universe Through Binoculars ( LJ 11/1/90), this book is among the best for illustrations but is lamentably weak with respect to text.… (meer)