Go to the BAA Journal home page
J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 109, 2, 1999, p.102
Copernicus (Springer-Verlag), 1998. ISBN 0-387-98551-4. Pp 216, large format, £24.50 (hbk).
reviewed by Nick Hewitt
How the initial shock and disappointment of May 1990 has been banished by the subsequent stunning success of the first large space telescope. The ingenuity of scientists and engineers in salvaging an embarrassing situation, and the bravery and skill of the astronauts who enabled the dream to continue could easily be forgotten as dazzling results and discoveries rain down upon us from above. And all praise to the Space Telescope Science Institute for making so much of the more accessible material available so rapidly.
Hubble Revisited recounts the story of the Hubble Space Telescope to date, and outlines the future plans both of this telescope, and that of orbiting observatories in general. Much of the 'big science' for which the HST was conceived is given an accessible overview, lavishly illustrated with images, both familiar and unfamiliar.
The authors are well-placed to write a popular book on this subject. Fischer is editor of Sterne und Weltraum in Germany; Duerbeck is a research astronomer and author of many publications. Their previous book Hubble: a New Window on the Universe was well received in 1996. (Journal, 106(4), 221, 1996 August). The book under review has been fully rewritten, and is flawlessly translated by Helmut Jenkner.
This book is beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated, yet it remains much more than one for the coffee-table. It attempts to explain the reasons for many of the observations made to date, and to clarify images that could easily become taken for granted. The scientific treatment is never complex nor too technical, but the authors do assume a basic grounding in astronomy and associated concepts such as redshift and the essential structure of the universe as we currently understand it. The layout is straightforward, and individual parts can be read in isolation. The first relates the story of the concept, and eventual realisation of the dream of the Space Telescope, the correction of the flaws on the first service mission in 1993, and details the changes to instrumentation during the second service mission of 1997. The next three parts give an overview of the astronomy, on decreasing scales. Part 2 discusses the cosmological aspects of the HST's work, studies of quasars, other active galaxies, interacting galaxies and gamma ray bursters. Part 3 concentrates on the stars, their lives and deaths, and includes a particularly fine gallery of beautiful images of planetary nebulae. Part 4 discusses planets, both extrasolar and those influenced by the Sun. While the images of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, their aurorae and their moons remain spectacular, it is perhaps the details of the remote, dark cold worlds of Neptune and Pluto that truly amaze.
Part 5 looks to the future. Two more service missions are planned, in 2000 and 2003. Exciting instrumentation such as the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 3 is briefly described. The proposed successors to HST are also listed; if these are successful, what exciting times lie ahead!
Finally, there is a useful glossary for those not familiar with astronomical terms (but why is 'redshift' not included?), a list of World Wide Web sites of related interest, and a bibliography. This handsome book will appeal on many fronts, to those who enjoy the beauty of the universe, to those who look for information beyond the pictures, and those who have interest and admiration for this most wonderful of instruments.
Go to the BAA Journal home page
Return to Journal 1999 April contents page