The Moons of Jupiter

Rating:
Summary: An Artist's Opinion
Review: I recently came across a copy of The Moons of Jupiter and found it to be a remarkably useful book for my purposes. As an artist I was especially appreciative of both the variety of the imagery and the innovative layout of a number of the pages, some of which could pass for works of art themselves. Although I know little about astronomy, I enjoyed the mix of mythology and science in the accompanying text . The Moons of Jupiter is a welcome addition to my visual resource library.

Rating:
Summary: An Artist's Opinion
Review: I recently came across a copy of The Moons of Jupiter and found it to be a remarkably useful book for my purposes. As an artist I was especially appreciative of both the variety of the imagery and the innovative layout of a number of the pages, some of which could pass for works of art themselves. Although I know little about astronomy, I enjoyed the mix of mythology and science in the accompanying text . The Moons of Jupiter is a welcome addition to my visual resource library.

Rating:
Summary: Misapprehensions
Review: It might be useful to clear up a few misapprehensions promoted in the review of The Moons of Jupiter by "A reader from the United States." He (she?) makes the point that "You can find every public domain image in this book by going to the nasa photojournal website at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov." This is absolutely true. But what this anonymous reviewer neglects to reveal is that virtually every image of astronomical phenomena whether of the Ghost Head Nebula, Jupiter's Io, or our own Luna, whether from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Galileo Spacecraft or the soon to land Mars Exploration Rovers, whether published in the New York Times, National Geographic, or The Moons of Jupiter is in fact a "public domain image" provided by NASA or one of its contractors. It is our tax money, after all, that funds NASA. Think about it. This side of launching your own space craft with camera aboard, where else would such images originate? The issue isn't the source of the images (they all come from the same places), rather it is selecting images, in this case, from several thousand images of Jupiter and its moons, sequencing these images, and in this particular instance figuring out how to obtain reproduction quality materials. This brings me to the reader from the United States? second point, to wit that the first image in The Moons of Jupiter of Io a volcanic plume on Jupiter is "the worst case of crude print production I've ever seen." (I could say this is one of the worse cases of hyperbole that I have read, but I won't.) What he (she?) doesn't reveal, or more probably doesn't realize, is that the Galileo images of Jupiter and its moons had a seemingly insurmountable problem. When the Galileo space probe reached Jupiter the main antennae failed to deploy, so a second antennae had to be jerry-rigged to transmitted imaging data. This has meant that many of the color image files coming down from Galileo were exceeding small. So while these images look great on a computer screen, many of them, particularly the color images, were not suitable for print reproduction. Taking advantage of the difference between electronic and chemical photography, suitable electronic files of these images were created at great expense and used in The Moons of Jupiter. The result is that a few images in the book are perhaps inferior to those posted at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov, but most images are as good or in several cases actually superior to those on the NASA website. For those who are curious, check it out. Finally, the reader from the United States opines that the "text is slathered with artistic references and comparisons?forcing the reader to agree that 'this is an art book!!!'" Those readers who prefer a strictly technical exposition of the photography reproduced in The Moons of Jupiter should go to the NASA website for this information. The idea behind the book's narrative was to give the somehow familiar yet alien landscapes of Jupiter's moons a human dimension by weaving into the scientific information, which is there for each of the photographs, the mythology, literature, art and history of science associated with the moons. The crew at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA, without whose help this book never would have come to pass, did like this mixture of science and the humanities, and thought the photo print reproduction was among the best they had ever seen of these images. The "reader from the United States?" didn?t, but that?s what makes horse races. The reader is correct, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet collided with Jupiter in 1994. Between July 16 and 22 of that year, 21 discernable fragments impacted the planet.

Rating:
Summary: Look Further...
Review: Say your time (and money) and buy Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes by Michael Benson which covers the same ground and more.

Rating:
Summary: Mythology and poetic descriptions
Review: This book suffers greatly from the text - poetic descriptions of the images ('...notice there are white gossamer snow flake patterns with jewel-like rays over a greenish background...') (my paraphrase) are annoying - the images are there to see for ourselves. Extensive mythological backgrounds for the names (of which there are a very large number) of every moon, every crater, every mountain ('...W who is the son of the god of X and married the goddess of fate Z and then killed Z's father after he...') (paraphrase) are usually as long as the accounts of scientific facts. A three paragraph blurb will have one of mythology, one of poetic description, and one will be informative. Buy this book for the pictures.

Rating:
Summary: Mythology and poetic descriptions
Review: This book suffers greatly from the text - poetic descriptions of the images ('...notice there are white gossamer snow flake patterns with jewel-like rays over a greenish background...') (my paraphrase) are annoying - the images are there to see for ourselves. Extensive mythological backgrounds for the names (of which there are a very large number) of every moon, every crater, every mountain ('...W who is the son of the god of X and married the goddess of fate Z and then killed Z's father after he...') (paraphrase) are usually as long as the accounts of scientific facts. A three paragraph blurb will have one of mythology, one of poetic description, and one will be informative. Buy this book for the pictures.

Rating:
Summary: humanities and science integrated
Review: This is not the spectacular coffee table book that the cover or many of the reviews here and elsewhere would leady one to believe. Thought there are a few stunning images of Jupiter and its moons, the vast majority of the images in the book are grainy, artifact-ridden, jagged and blurry images of specific various features viewed far too "close up". As science book it just passes: the text is very informative and the coverage of geological features is quite extensive; but the images are almost uniformly a huge disappointment. In fact, the cover is probably the best thing about the book.

In addition the book is printed on the too-glossy paper of low-quality coffee table books that makes is prone to smudging and glare, so the few decent images the book contains are hard to enjoy.