Episode 399 – Astronomy Books With Chris Wilcox Show Notes

• Arthur Koestler: The Sleepwalkers, in which Western civ gets stuck in geocentricity for 1500 years
• Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Some dated conventions, but a fascinating sociological study of avant-garde science. This classic gave us the now-overused term “paradigm shift.”
• Michael Hoskin: The History of Astronomy: A Very Short Introduction
• Dava Sobel: The Planets
• Leslie C. Peltier Starlight Nights: The Adventures of a Star-Gazer
• Ronald Florence: The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope
• Robert Zimmerman: The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It
• Emily Levesque: The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers. A young professor’s assemblage of adventures — her own, plus accounts gleaned from colleagues — from the days when astronomers would travel to the big, remote observatories to capture their data.

What are some popular books on planetary science, astrophysics, and cosmology that are high up on your list of must reads?

• Mike Brown: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
• Adam Frank: The Little Book of Aliens
• Philip Plait: Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe
• Becky Smethurst: A Brief History of Black Holes
• Carlo Rovelli: White Holes
• Moiya McTier: The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy

I think you even mentioned some poems?

(is there a particular short passage that might be suitable to read?)

• Benjamin Labatut: When We Cease to Understand the World and The MANIAC
• Kim Stanley Robinson: Galileo’s Dream
• Tracy K. Smith Life on Mars: Poems

References

• Leslie C. Peltier, in his classic Guideposts to the Stars
• Walter “Scotty” Houston (his bio reminds us that he was an editor and English teacher by profession)
• Stephen James O’Meara, e.g., his Messier Objects 2nd ed.
• Sue French, in her inimitable continuation of Houston & O’Meara’s Deep Sky Wonders
• Howard Banich (his recent S&T article on M33 was his 33rd column for the magazine, so I hope he eventually pulls his writings and brilliant sketches into a bound collection)

What are some other useful books?

• Burnham’s Celestial Handbook in three volumes
• Nightwatch (Dickinson, et al.)
• Harrington: Touring the Universe through Binoculars
• Hill: A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings

What do you keep handy at your desk?

• Pasachoff: Peterson Field Guide to the Stars and Planets
• Mitton: A Concise Dictionary of Astronomy 
• Edgar: RASC Observer’s Handbook (current U.S. ed.)
• Beckett: RASC 2024 Observer’s Calendar

What are some good books to have in the field?

• Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas, Field Edition* (Stoyan & Schurig)
• Sky Atlas 2000.0: Deluxe Edition  (Tirion & Sinnott)
• Rukl: Atlas of the Moon
• Turn Left at Orion (Consolmagno & Davis) 
• The Messier Observer’s Planisphere* from Celestial Teapot   >46-cm diameter