A decade of stunning discoveries has rewritten the road map of our solar system. Bright comets blazed in the sky while Galileo beamed back astonishing images from Jupiter and Mars Pathfinder sped to the surface of Mars. A comet hit Jupiter, as telescopes discovered swarms of minor planets at the icy limit of the solar system, and new planets beyond orbiting nearby stars. These discoveries have required a completely new edition of The New Solar System, compiled by researchers who participated in many of the recent planetary missions..

The third edition of Nightwatch continues its tradition of being the best handbook for the beginning astronomer. Terence Dickinson covers all the problems beginners face, starting with the fact that the night sky does not look the way a modern city-dweller expects. He discusses light pollution, how to choose binoculars and telescopes, how to pronounce the names of stars and constellations, telescope mounts, averted vision, and why the harvest moon looks especially bright. Most of the lovely photographs in the book were taken by amateurs, which gives the section on astrophotography a particularly inspirational gleam.....Dickinson's star charts are very handy, each covering a reasonable field of view and mapping the most interesting amateur objects. He gives good advice for planet watching, which he notes "is one of the few astronomical activities that can be conducted almost as well from the city as from dark rural locations."     Altogether, the watchword for Nightwatch is indeed "practical"--this is a book to be used, not just read.....

Electric green pierced by neon blue, shocking pink spinning into violent red, and shimmering purple sidled up against deep indigo: never before have you seen such high-octane colors in the sky, and never before has a book shown the northern lights—aurora borealis—in such vivid color. In Northern Lights, photographers Calvin Hall and Daryl Pederson bring to print nearly a hundred photographs of this amazing natural phenomenon, shot from remote locations all over Alaska.....