Totality: Eclipses of the Sun - Softcover

Littmann, Mark; Espenak, Fred; Willcox, Ken

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019956552X ISBN 13: 9780199565528

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009

Synopsis

A total eclipse of the Sun is the most awesome sight in the heavens. Totality takes you to eclipses of the past, present, and future, and lets you see--and feel--why people travel to the ends of the Earth to observe them.

An absolutely indispensable resource for anyone who plans to observe an eclipse, and a must read for all astronomy buffs, this superb new edition brims with the anecdotes, experiences, and advice of many veteran eclipse observers. Indeed, it is the best guide and reference book on solar eclipses ever written, packed with information on how to observe them; how to photograph and videotape them; why they occur; their history and mythology; how eclipses revealed the workings of the Sun and made Einstein famous; and when and where to see future eclipses. Totality once again features the spectacular photography of Fred Espenak, who runs the NASA Eclipse Home Page and is the best-known and respected of all eclipse calculators and information sources. His many stunning color photographs illuminate this unparalleled exploration of eclipses. The volume has been updated to include current information on upcoming eclipses, with new chapters on the total eclipses due in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2017, plus all new chapters on how to photograph, video record, and process your eclipse images, with emphasis on the new generation of digital cameras.

Strikingly illustrated with stunning photographs and more than a hundred maps and diagrams, here is everything you need to know about eclipses of the sun, in an accurate, clearly written, and entertaining volume that can be read by lay people and astronomers with ease and enjoyment.

About this title

Review

Francis Baily spent his 20s exploring unsettled parts of North America and didn't get around to astronomy until he was 37, when he traveled to an annular eclipse of the Sun in southern Scotland. On May 15, 1836, he watched as light from the occluded sun poured through the lunar valleys and reached him broken up into "a row of lucid points, like a string of bright beads." With those words, Baily founded the industry of eclipse chasing.

The best feature of Totality is its wealth of biographical information about eclipse chasers past and present. Throughout this century, every total eclipse over land has been attended by scientists willing to travel great distances, endure hostile climates--and risk complete failure because of clouds--for a few minutes' view of the corona. This turbulent outer part of the sun, best studied when the sun is obscured, draws observers across the globe to this day.

Totality, like most eclipse guides produced in time for the 1999 eclipse, doesn't seem to know which readers it's addressing. Near the beginning, the reader is abjured not to let all the science bits "stand in the way of your enjoyment of the wild, wacky, and wonderful things people have thought and done about solar eclipses." What a strange sentiment in such a fascinating and adult marriage of science, history, biography, and sound technical advice. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk

About the Author

Mark Littmann holds an endowed professorship in science writing at the University of Tennessee, where he teaches both writing and astronomy. He has written several popular astronomy books, including Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System, which won the Science Writing Award of the American Institute of Physics; and Comet Halley: Once in a Lifetime (with Don Yeomans), which won the Elliott Montroll Special Award of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Fred Espenak is the most widely recognized name in solar eclipses. He is an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where he founded and runs the NASA Eclipse Home Page, the most consulted website for eclipse information around the globe.

The late Ken Willcox was a polymer chemist for Phillips Petroleum with a lifetime passion for astronomy. Willcox was elected President of the Astronomical League in 1988 and he also served on the board of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 019956552X
• ISBN 13: 9780199565528
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 343