Rating: 
Summary: A match made in Heaven
Review: The match being that of science and poetry. The author writes about the achievements of amateur astronomers, giving a wealth of information about astronomy, stargazing, and amateurs, all of which is written in a language so beautifully poetic. It is a masterpiece. The love of the author for his topic is evident on every page and it is contagious. This is a book that will fill you with wonder, and probably sweep you off your feet and onto the nearest dark ground with a starmap in hand!Rich with information, written with passion, the book is fascinating, moving, and absolutely beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: Astro-nerds take note...
Review: The publication of a new book by an author of Timothy Ferris' stature should pique the interest of most amateur astronomers. Seeing in the Dark is exceptional in this regard, since the book is all about amateur astronomers. Ferris, an avid amateur observer himself, has spent the last few years visiting some prominent amateur astronomers, following them as they engage in what amounts to sophisticated research (for free), going to their star parties, looking at their photos, and just generally learning their stories. Those stories are collected in his new book "Seeing in the Dark," along with Ferris' usual assemblage of science, storytelling, history, and culture. As usual, Ferris has a knack for sounding quotable, as in his description of a total solar eclipse. I've read countless accounts of the powerful visual experience of viewing totality, and Ferris ranks among the best in terms of capturing the raw mix of terror and fascination: "Suddenly the sky collapsed into darkness and a dozen bright stars appeared. In their midst hung an awful, black ball, rimmed in ruby red and surrounded by the doomsday glow of the gray corona. No photograph can do justice to this appalling sight: The dynamic range from bright to dark is too great, and the colors are literally unearthly. I staggered back a few steps, like a drunken man..." The amateur observers that Ferris highlights will be familiar to readers of popular astronomy publications: Jack Newton, Stephen James O'Meara, Don Parker, David Levy, and many more. But few have heard the anecdotes told here, of the personal motivations and triumphs of a handful of legendary sky gazers. There's even a conversation with Brian May, the lead guitarist for the rock band Queen. How many amateurs know that May has a college degree in mathematics and astronomy, or that Queen's little known but outstanding acoustic song '39' is about relativistic time dilation? There's a lot of good science in this book as well. The chapter on the moon contains a wonderful explanation of the tides on Earth, as well as the best summary I've ever read of the various theories about the "moon size" illusion that makes the moon seem huge when seen close to the horizon. Ferris' previous books have established him as a solid popularizer of science and he continues that tradition with Seeing in the Dark. It's an easy blend of history, science and personal experience that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful audio book
Review: The stories told in these audio CDs are facinating, and have been amply described elsewhere. My comments are on the audio CDs themselves. First, Timothy Ferris has a soft, gentle voice that is perfect for reading his own material. It has a kind of fundamental pervasive understatement to it which makes some of the tales, such as getting observatory building advice from Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, even more touching. It also adds to the subtle wit Ferris slips in every now and again. I drive only 8 miles to work, yet I found myself finding excuses to run errands on the way home so I could hear just a bit more of "Seeing in the Dark." My only complaint is that the producers of these audio discs made each disc one entire track! This is stupid. If you want to stop the audio CD in the middle to listen to something else, you have to note the time counter, and then when you reinsert the disc you have to fast forward to where you left off. Why the producers didn't at least put track breaks where the book has chapter breaks is puzzling. But don't let this put you off from this great audio book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful audio book
Review: The stories told in these audio CDs are facinating, and have been amply described elsewhere. My comments are on the audio CDs themselves. First, Timothy Ferris has a soft, gentle voice that is perfect for reading his own material. It has a kind of fundamental pervasive understatement to it which makes some of the tales, such as getting observatory building advice from Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, even more touching. It also adds to the subtle wit Ferris slips in every now and again. I drive only 8 miles to work, yet I found myself finding excuses to run errands on the way home so I could hear just a bit more of "Seeing in the Dark." My only complaint is that the producers of these audio discs made each disc one entire track! This is stupid. If you want to stop the audio CD in the middle to listen to something else, you have to note the time counter, and then when you reinsert the disc you have to fast forward to where you left off. Why the producers didn't at least put track breaks where the book has chapter breaks is puzzling. But don't let this put you off from this great audio book.
Rating:
Summary: Reading "Seeing" is Believing
Review: This book is a great reminder of how amateurs can (and do!) make significant contributions to the areas of their interest. It's very well written and Ferris does a terrific job of inspiring the reader to grab a pair of binoculars or pull out that old scope you have gathering dust in the closet and take a good long look at what's going on up there. It contains only a few star charts and some tables on objects of interest, so it is not meant as an introduction to using telescopes, etc. Instead, Ferris draws on his own experience and interviews serious amateurs who have made contributions to "professional" astronomy, and the result is an inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Reading "Seeing" is Believing
Review: This book is a great reminder of how amateurs can (and do!) make significant contributions to the areas of their interest. It's very well written and Ferris does a terrific job of inspiring the reader to grab a pair of binoculars or pull out that old scope you have gathering dust in the closet and take a good long look at what's going on up there. It contains only a few star charts and some tables on objects of interest, so it is not meant as an introduction to using telescopes, etc. Instead, Ferris draws on his own experience and interviews serious amateurs who have made contributions to "professional" astronomy, and the result is an inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant Rock n Roll Astronomer
Review: This is a poignant and wonderful autobiographical book. As Timothy Ferris writes, for most of its long history, astronomy has been primarily an amateur pursuit. Like some of those lifelong "amateurs," quiet national treasure Ferris is an erudite Renaissance man and gifted writer with a wry and ironic sense of humor -- and one of the best popular science writers of his (boomer) generation (he is a master of analogy and metaphor). Meet these prominent amateur astronomers and follow their friend Professor Ferris through the solar system into deep space and, like me, you'll finally be out shopping for your own binoculars and telescope and finding the local amateur astronomy club closest to you (and then find yourself fighting light pollution). It might just be me, but, Ferris's delicate eloquence will bring you to tears, especially if -- even without your own observatory -- you too already live with the constant awareness that we're all living on a minuscule, fabulously beautiful rock spinning through an unfathomable solar system, galaxy, Local Group and expanding universe. Expect a good glossary, excellent index and helpful appendixes to start you in your own love affair with our universe. (The comic subtitle in part refers to the amateur astronomers watching for asteroids on collision courses with Earth.)
Rating:
Summary: ...stargazer fall from the sky
Review: This is a very unique and enlightening book about how much amateurs can enjoy and contribute to the science of astronomy. Since there is so much to observe in the universe, amateurs often spot phenomena that are missed by the professionals, and are aided by their love of astronomy as a personal passion rather than a job. In fact, there are growing cases of the professionals teaming up with amateurs for large projects. Astronomy is also probably the only science in which amateurs can obtain equipment almost as powerful as that used by the pros. Ferris includes many interesting character sketches of noteworthy amateurs who have made real contributions to the astronomy of science, indicating how many different types of people from all walks of life can share these passions. The structure of this book is very rewarding as Ferris covers in great detail the full realm of possibilities for the amateur, from unexpected surprises right here in the solar system to the extreme cosmology of quasars and galactic superclusters. Just watch out for a few cases of cloying sentimentality at the conclusion of some chapters. One sappy example of the children-are-the-future variety closes chapter 9; while Ferris mangles the history of the Aztecs and Mayans in Chapter 8. The absence of scientific illustrations is another difficulty. However, the day is saved by Ferris' everyman writing style that can encourage the interest of all people, and his appendices are incredibly useful to amateurs from beginner to expert. This book has succeeded for me personally, as Ferris has encouraged me to reacquaint myself with a lost childhood passion. A telescope purchase lies in my near future.
Rating:
Summary: Every Man A Galileo
Review: This is an informative and at times whimsical work about outer space, specifically who is doing the observing and what is being observed. The material goes considerably beyond the title, as only one chapter actually treats of near earth objects [NEO's] at depth, and I am still confused over the author's distinction between "amateur" and "professional" astronomers. With those caveats in mind, "Seeing In The Dark" is a fine overview of astronomy for those of us who have been out of school awhile and think of Pluto as the edge of the meaningful universe.
As a boy I was intrigued by astronomy and at age 10 owned an off-the shelf hand telescope that, in my recollection, simply made the bright stars brighter. I once tried to observe the crescent of Venus through my mother's hand mirror and a magnifying glass. I did get to see the rings of Saturn, finally, through the 8" telescope at the Buffalo Museum of Science, and to this day I divide the world into those who have seen that spectacle firsthand and those who haven't. Popular astronomy in the 1950's was lunar and planetary: the supposed canal system of Mars, for example, was still an issue of debate.
I lost my interest in the 1960's when astronomy became less optical and more electronic. Real observations and photos of heavenly bodies are egalitarian. Spectroscopic charts, radio waves, radar exploration and the like required time, sophisticated education, and money. Every decade or so something would catch my fancy: Apollo 11, Viking, Pioneer, Hubble, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, Cassini. But why should an amateur like myself spend money and time at something already being done with more precision at Arecibo in Puerto Rico or Mt. Palomar in California, or from a satellite in space, for that matter?
Timothy Ferris argues in so many words that the modern astronomical-industrial complex, so to speak, is too big and too expensive to perform some of the most critical work of present day astronomy. The author provides a plethora of examples, such as planetary weather. Most planets have atmospheres with characteristics not entirely unlike the earth's own. The atmospheres of the large outer planets [and in at least one case, a planetary satellite] have predictable patterns of wind currents and even storms that produce lightning. Mars, we have come to realize, has significant dust storms and seasonal markers. To monitor these systems, however, requires daily observations over months and years. With the crush of competition for seat time for the monster telescopes and the costs involved, such meticulous and time consuming planetary observations are gradually falling into the hands of the dedicated [and exquisitely patient] amateur backyard astronomers. The older, smaller, and midrange telescopes have come into a new age of usefulness, where persistence is of equal value to optical power. And, as the author observes, the marriage of a modest telescope with digital photography, computer controls, and Internet access to professionals, has created a formidable network of information gatherers.
Nowhere is the amateur's value of more importance than in the discovery and tracking of NEO's, asteroids whose orbits regularly criss-cross the earth's. Observation of these dangerous bodies and forecast of collisions is extremely difficult for several reasons. NEO's are hard to see [in some instances, at the 29th magnitude], only small tracks of their orbits are currently known, and they are notoriously vulnerable to gravitational influences from the earth, the sun, and even Jupiter. Science has developed a public coding system for risk from each known object, and I would venture a guess that readers will find particular stimulation from Ferris's discussion of the "Torino Scale." [As I was reading this work, I checked the day's "Torino forecast" on NASA's web site, the very day that NASA used a "Torino 4" rating for the first time, for Asteroid 2004MN4. As this occurred the same day as the Asian tsunami, little or no press coverage was devoted to the event, though astronomers around the world focused on the potential risk of a 2029 collision. The odds for 2004MN4 were downgraded to Torino 1 a few days later.]
Suffice to say that NEO's are the "high needs child" of space observation, and every verifiable observation by an amateur astronomer enables NASA and international tracking systems to add another fraction of certainty to a body's orbit. Ferris intersperses observational details of heavenly bodies with interviews of the men and women who do the observing. His use of the word "amateur" is stretched like taffy. Some of these unsalaried observers have spent six-figures in outfitting their equipment or, in some cases, pursuing doctorates to expedite their work. Some have walked away from lucrative professions and made wholesale disruptions in personal and family life on behalf of serious stargazing. In some cases "amateur" does not do justice to what is more appropriately an "obsession."
Ferris summarizes what we have come to know about planets, stars and galaxies in the past few generations of advanced study. Again, if one has not addressed astronomy systematically since school days, this work is an excellent primer on our current state of understanding the heavens. There is a thorough 25-page appendix that treats of basic stargazing information, including issues of light pollution, choice of equipment, and basic star charts, as well as a summary of periodicals and web sites. I regretted that there are no photos of any kind in the book, so we never get to see with our own eyes the quality of work produced by the amateurs in our communities. Perhaps the author was deliberately setting out to pique our curiosity, for yesterday I found myself investigating the features and price tag of a small telescope at the Brookstone's in my local mall. It's been a long time since I've done that.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: Tim Ferris hit his first homerun with "Coming of Age in the Milky Way". "Seeing in the Dark" is a different type of book but still manages to be very readable. The array of characters he includes in Seeing is astounding, and certainly there are far too many to include here. Suffice it to say that astronomy, as a hobby, is healthy and in good hands with people who stay under the starry dome by choice and often make significant contributions to the body of knowledge inspite of the snobbery of a few professionals. You will be refreshed after reading their stories.
Of particular interest is Ferris' coverage of galaxy clusters and super clusters toward the end of the book. There is much here that this novice didn't know. I have new targets to aim my scope at.
Get this book and read it. You won't regret it.
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