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Email: normsperling@gmail.com
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SCIENCE BOOKS FOR SALE!
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These are actual physical books, not fleeting images of them.
No screen, no switch, no battery, no crashes. Portable, durable (mostly), affordable. Books induce concentration and focus. They make users imaginative, analytical, and reflective.
My library seeks new, loving homes. I have loved and used these books for decades, but now is the time to part. Mostly astronomy, spaceflight, and history of science. Many ≤ $5. These are the best copies I obtained over 50 years, the ones I kept for my own use. All are in English. Many rare resources. Many had been owned by previous astronomers, most of whom I knew; I name the prominent ones. About 10% are autographed by their authors. This list shows about 5% of what I seek to sell. Need more details? Email your questions to me.
Plus shipping: conventional books within the US @$5. Others and elsewhere: let’s discuss factors by email. normsperling@gmail.com
This 2024 price list is hereby placed in the Public Domain. Please relay links or copies to everyone who may be interested.
Charles Greeley Abbot: The Sun, 2d ed. Appleton 1929. Maroon hardback, good condition. Wide-ranging detailed explanations of solar science to that date. Abbot was Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and a ‘Public Scholar’ often called upon to explain technicalities to non-technical people. He lived to be 101 years old. This appears to be the only copy of the 1929 second edition on the market as I seek comparison prices. (The Sun and the Welfare of Man was a very different book, for the less-technical public.) $99
George Biddell Airy: Popular Astronomy. 6th ed, Macmillan, 1868. Many small cuts. Binding hard and tight, pages tight. 292 p + 24 p publisher’s catalog. Very heavily the astronomy of position and motion, as dutifully measured by the Royal Greenwich Observatory of which Airy was director, as Astronomer Royal. $45
Morton Alperin & H. F. Gregory, eds: Vistas in Astronautics, vol. 2. Pergamon 1959. Late in the Eisenhower Administration, exploring Space became urgent because America’s rival, the USSR, orbited satellites before the US did, and the rockets that lifted them could deliver atomic bombs anywhere. This surprised and alarmed people who expected to be safe from that threat for several more years. National prestige pushed building out the old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics into “the NASA” (as it’s called on p 13). They knew what they didn’t know: Experts disagreed on dust and other conditions to be found on the Moon. Which missions should be robotic and which needed humans? How do the spacecraft have to function? First signature coming loose at the top, still attached. Stains from ancient Scotch tape. $60
Robert Ball: A Primer of Astronomy. Cambridge U Pr. 2d ed, 4th printing, 1920. 228p. Up-to-date photos, and more classic linecuts. Wrestles with the nature and distance of nebulae, the diameter of the Great “Nebula” in Andromeda being at least 70 times the diameter of Neptune’s orbit, and perhaps — fantastically — 10 times more than that. $60
Marcia Bartusiak: Thursday’s Universe. Times Books 1986. The forefront (and the haze beyond) of cosmology in the 1980s. Hubble and Webb have clarified some aspects since, but leave just as much haze. $5
Jeremy Bernstein: Three Degrees Above Zero: Bell Labs in the Information Age. Scribner 1984. Creating the unprecedented technologies of computers, solid state electronics, the telephone network, and the radio telescope that heard the Universe hissing at us. Mostly 1950s-80s. This book is more fun and personal but less thorough than Jon Gertner’s The Idea Factory, 2012. $5
Adriaan Blaauw, ed: Second Conference on Co-Ordination of Galactic Research. IAU Symposium 7. Cambridge U Pr 1959. 93p. Rare. Autographed by Blaauw. Top professionals deciding how to coordinate their research. Nice condition, hardback, dust jacket, age browning, blemished from very old cellophane tape. $25
David Blair: A Grammar of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; including Physics, Dynamics, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Acoustics, Optics, Astronomy, Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism. According to the latest discoveries. With one hundred engravings on wood. 20th American edition, from the 12th London ed, 1824. 16mo. $55
John C. Brandt & Michael B. McElroy, eds: The Atmospheres of Venus and Mars. Gordon & Breach 1968. Autographed by Brandt. How strikingly little we knew from the meager tools then available! Rare book from the crack of dawn of the Space Age. $35
John C. Brandt & Stephen P. Maran: New Horizons in Astronomy, first ed, 1972. Freeman. Textbook covering many issues of the times. Dramatic cover illustration: a Navah0 sand painting. Excellent condition. Autographed by both authors. $5
— second ed, 1979. Cover photo of radio telescopes. Autographed by both authors. $5
Tom Bullock: Astronomy: Second Contact. rare second ed, Kendall/Hunt 1989. Textbook written more warmly and personally than most. Paperback. Excellent condition. Autographed by Bullock. $6
Elijah H. Burritt: The Geography of the Heavens. Huntington 1838. Like a country-by-country tour book, it surveys constellation by constellation, rather than a textbook’s categories of objects. Only naked-eye stars are noted; telescopes were then too rare to cater to. So all but the brightest nebulae are generally skipped. This is the copy of the book from which Sky & Telescope magazine copied the engraving of Venus’s phases, March 1979; the darkroom instruction tab is included. $50
Charles J. Caes: Cosmology: The Search for the Order of the Universe. Tab 1986. Nearly-new hardback. For non-technical lay public. Tours astronomical history and objects to explain ideas of cosmology, mentioning religious ideas while concentrating on science. $7
Murray Campbell & Harrison Hatton: Herbert H. Dow: Pioneer in Creative Chemistry. Appleton-Century-Crofts 1951. Hardback in very good condition, dustjacket quite tattered on all edges. Dogged, determined independent enterpriser, Dow began extracting bromides and chlorine from brine in the 1880s. With abundant creativity and strong business sense he built up his company from a shack to a world-class, multi-product industry. $12
George Frederick Chambers: Astronomy. Van Nostrand 1913. Saturn beautifully rendered in gold on the front cover. 335 pages, with 8 coloured plates and 357 pictures in black-and-white. For the literate public, in whom the author had noticed substantial hunger for more than surface glosses, though still without the math. ex lib Mount Holyoke with markings. $160.
James Freeman Clarke: How to Find the Stars, with an account of the Astronomical Lantern and is use. Lockwood, Brooks 1878. Small paperback. 47 p + 6 p ads. Very rare. Just the instruction book, not the lantern or the constellation cards that fit in it. The lantern back-lights cards with the stars punched out, much as in Urania’s Mirror. $25
Helen Miles Davis: Atomic Facts. Science Service 1950. Table of contents detached but included. Binding and pages otherwise nice. rare. A thorough plain-English introduction of many technicalities of nuclear energy. Author, a chemist, was wife of Science Service’s director. $75
David Deskins: Looking Back: Amateur Adventures With Halley’s Comet 1985-1986. Intrinsic 1987. Quarto. Abundant photos. Rare. $15
John Lowry Dobson: How and Why to Make a User-Friendly Sidewalk Telescope. 1991. See EverythingInTheUniverse.com/dobs
John William Draper: Scientific Memoirs. Harper & Brothers 1878. Brilliant scientific contributions, especially about Daguerreotypes, spectra of chemicals, spectra of the Sun, heat, chemicals, microscopy, optics, and more. Binding is shelfworn, contents fine. A previous owner was Allegheny Observatory. $300
Joseph H. Elgie: The Stars Night By Night. “cheap edition” C Arthur Pearson 1919. Pages browned and brittle. Ads for Cooke and Aitchison telescopes, and Fry’s Cocoa! 247p. Arranged from January to December. limp fabric cover. Rare. $50
William Eyster: Thataway: The Magnetic Compass in Modern Civilization. AS Barnes 1970. Easy, clear, fun reading. Describes many improvements whose creators are not known. From remote antiquity to beginning electronics. Rare. $20
Benjamin Farrington: Greek Science: Its Meaning for Us. Penguin 1969. Began as a paperback, rebound in hard covers by San Jose City College Library, later sold to me. So: the paper of a paperback, now browned. Ex lib with markings. $4
Camille Flammarion, tr J. Ellard Gore: Popular Astronomy. Appleton c.1895. 3 plates and 288 illustrations. Heavy large hardback. Front cover has silvery square of stars of many brightnesses and patterns. Front and back hinges damaged but not broken. Gigantic classic description of what astronomers had found in the sky. Flammarion was an artist astronomer so the illustrations are uncommonly fine. $150
Ira M. Freeman: Light and Radiation. Random House 1968. Paperback, heavily illustrated with clear photos. For adults with no college, maybe no high school science. Should work just as well now. Nice condition. $8
Agnes Giberne: The Starry Skies. American Tract Society 1894. Spine faded, cloth cover corners bumped, otherwise fine. For intelligent children. 4 chapters based on Earth, 3 about the Moon, 2 about the Sun, 10 on the Solar System, 3 on stars, and last chapter suggesting how to begin. A quaint, rare antique. $50
Edward Gibson: The Quiet Sun. NASA SP-303, 1973. For scientists: many technical equations, paragraphs full of scientific terms. Detailed description of everything detectable, and everything deducible from that. $14
Ronald G. Giovanelli: Secrets of the Sun. Cambridge U Pr 1984. Quarto. Heavily illustrated. Conversational enough for non-technical readers, detailed enough for professional astronomers. $8
Donald Goldsmith The Universe. Benjamin 1976. Unusual arrangement: from the origin of the Universe, down to our local solar system. Autographed by Goldsmith. $5
Vivien Gornitz, ed: Geology of the Planet Mars. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross 1979. Research anthology using equations, b/w photos. Each spaceprobe advanced understanding. These are the grains that compose the grainy picture up to preliminary Viking results. Carl Sagan has a couple bit-parts. A little shelf-worn. $28
Jerry Grey: Enterprise. Morrow 1979. Takes a fairly detailed look at the Space Shuttle’s development, but doesn’t seem to mention that early plans used titanium, not aluminum. $10
[Joseph] Guy’s Elements of Astronomy, and an abridgement of [Thomas] Keith’s New Treatise on the Use of the Globes. bound as a single volume. 13th American edition 1845. 12mo. Lots of foxing. $50
William K. Hartmann & Odell Raper: The New Mars: The Discoveries of Mariner 9. NASA SP-337, 1974. Quarto. Then-spectacular discoveries on almost every page, with our best views by far. A global story, replacing the previous patchwork of small bits. I bought this new and have taken good care of it for half a century. Who will care for it next? $25
Ellison Hawks: Stars Shown to the Children. TC & EC Jack 1910. Marketing to the excitement of Halley’s Comet, this popularization surveys skywatching, the nature of the objects viewed, and astronomers and their telescopes. Color plates! Previous owner: Armand Spitz. $25
William C. Hayes, Jr, ed: Space — New Opportunities for International Ventures. v49, Science and Technology Series, American Astronautical Society, 1980. paperback. Capabilities; Next Steps; Opportunities; Financing; International Users. $39
John H. Heller: Of Mice, Men and Molecules. First printing, Scribner’s 1960. 176 p. Basic research delves into the unknown, with unpredictable results and value. Some investigations yield interesting, even curious results, without attracting follow-up for decades. Other questions are so blatantly relevant that entire industries are built on their results. Heller tells what he found studying sharks, cellular defenses, psychoactive drugs, radio waves, electric eels, botulism, and bureaucracy. Dustjacket shelfworn; binding and pages fine. Previous owner: Armand Spitz. $20
Paul G. Hewitt: Next-Time Questions to Supplement Conceptual Physics, 5th ed. Little, Brown, 1985. 80 unbound, shelf-worn loose pages. Well written and illustrated basic physics. A neat curiosity, still usable. $3
John Holt: How Children Learn. Dell 1971. I bought his paperback new for 95c, read part of it, set it aside for half a century, and now sell it used for $1.
Delwyn Hyatt: A Navigator’s Introduction of Astronomy. Weems System of Navigation 1943. Very rare. Enormous numbers of sailors and pilots were trained for WWII, and many sought more context that narrowly doing assigned jobs. In just 72 pages, this book told them one bit more about each topic. $80
Joseph H. Jackson: Pictorial Guide to the Planets. Crowell, 2d ed 1965. Quarto. Lavishly illustrated in b/w. $8
Ricky Jay: Jay’s Journal of Anomalies: Conjurers - Cheats - Hustlers - Hoaxters - Pranksters - Jokesters - Impostors - Pretenders - Sideshow Showmen - Armless Calligraphers - Mechanical Marvels - Popular Entertainments. Quantuck Lane Press 2003. Oversize quality paperback on premium paper. Nearly new. Richly illustrated with 1700s-1800s pictures of each story. $40
James Jeans: The Universe Around Us. 4th ed, Cambridge, 1953. Well written survey: Sky - Atom - Time - Stars - Planets. $18
Waldemar Kaempffert & Herbert T. Wade: Astronomy. Vol 1 of The Science-History of the Universe in 10 volumes. Current Literature Pub Co 1912. Ambitious set for the increasing college-educated public, and literate readers who didn’t get that far formally. This book culminates with the then-current concept that bodies start hot and evolve by cooling off. $12
Karl Kammermeyer, ed: Atmosphere in Space Cabins and Closed Environments. Appleton/Century/Crofts 1966. Technical professional research addressed at preserving life in Space. Loaded with graphs, diagrams, and chemical reactions. $75
William J. Kaufmann III: The Cosmic Frontiers of General Relativity. Little, Brown 1977. Paperback. Autographed. Thorough explanation of Special and General Relativity, and their astronomical implications, using clear graphs and charts instead of equations. Tucked in: magazine whisky ad starring a studly Kaufmann. $19
The Kennedy Space Center Story, NASA Public Affairs 1974. Paperback. The official story, told by officious officials. Heavy on data, history, and officialdom. $10
Stan Kent, ed: Remember the Future — The Apollo Legacy. V50, Science and Technology Series, American Astronautical Society. Topics include seeds, beam weapons, orbiting mirrors, space colonies, SETI, rocket propulsion, Space Shuttle, popular support, Omni magazine. $39
Scott G. Lamb: Air Navigation for Beginners. 2d ed rev, Henley, 1943. 101 p. Looks unused. So rare I didn’t find any comparison price. $10
L.Don Leet & Sheldon Judson: Physical Geology, 4th ed, Prentice-Hall 1971. Massive quarto textbook showing how much they already knew back then. Compare it to a new text to see how technology and understanding have both propelled the science far forward. $5
* SOLD * Murray Leinster, ed: Great Stories of Science Fiction. Random House 1951. Hardback. 12 short stories, published 1936-48, mostly in Astounding Science Fiction but also Thrilling Wonder Stories and a couple magazines you wouldn’t search for sci-fi: Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post. Includes “The Chromium Helmet” by Theodore Sturgeon.
John W. Macvey: Interstellar Travel: Past, Present, and Future. Stein and Day 2d printing 1978. Time, space, chemistry, aliens, attitudes. $7
John H. Mallas & Evered Kreimer: The Messier Album. Sky Publishing 1978. First edition, first printing. In fact, grabbed from the first shipment from the printer to the publisher by a Sky & Telescope assistant editor (me) and bought instantly. A strong-selling, well-illustrated guide to the hundred-or-so best deep-sky objects to hunt with a telescope. Nearly untouched, excellent condition. $25
E. Walter Maunder: The Science of the Stars. TC & EC Jack 1912. Small thin 95 pages “The People’s Books”. An easily readable survey of a time when few people had as much as a high school education. $20
Donald H. Menzel: A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. Houghton Mifflin, first printing! 1964. The Peterson Field Guide series stayed within flora and fauna, with a single foray into rocks, until this book. It is a very Boston/Cambridge product, with the publisher just south of the Charles River and the author just north of it, alongside H.A. Rey, whose fanciful constellations were popularized by the same publisher. Recent editions were updated by Jay Pasachoff, from [gasp] the far west end of Massachusetts. $6
Willis I. Milham: How to Identify the Stars. First edition, 2nd printing, Macmillan 1909. Small book for basic constellations. $15
Patrick Moore: The Amateur Astronomer. 5th ed, Norton, 1964. What a beginner with a telescope no wider than 6 inches can track and notice. While bigger scopes and advanced Science greatly improve our understanding, this is still what a beginner with a small scope can track and notice, so this book is still quite useful. $5
Shirley Moore: Science Projects Handbook. Science Service; Ballantine, first ed 1960. 253 p paperback. Paper is browning and probably brittle. Top atudent science projects of the late 1950s. For S&T in the late 1970s I reported on such projects in astronomy. Inspiration for science fairs and Maker Faires. $9
Henry Moseley: Lectures on Astronomy Delivered at King’s College London. 4th ed, Parker, 1854. 237p. Binding in shambles: back cover detached, along with adjacent end and ad pages, but all present. Front cover barely hanging on. Many pages lose. But: many small illustrations throughout. $45
Lloyd Motz, ed: The Rediscovery of the Earth. Massive quarto. Van Nostrand Reinhold 1979. Splashily illustrated in color, 21 authors tell how their specialties in Earth science had recently progressed. $15
Forest Ray Moulton: An Introduction to Astronomy. First edition, second printing, Macmillan 1907. University textbook pushing the most up-to-date understandings and, with his own hypothesis of how the solar system formed, pushing a bit beyond it. Good condition, used, $10
Thomas A. Mutch, Raymond E. Arvidson, James W. Head III, Kenneth L. Jones, & R. Stephen Saunders: The Geology of Mars. Princeton U Pr 1976. 400-page quarto. Professional research analysis with first results from Vikings 1 & 2. Corners bumped, pages fine. $30
Maxim Newmark: Dictionary of Science and Technology in English - French - German - Spanish. First ed, Philosophical Library 1943. Dust jacket absorbed much use, preserving the binding and pages nice and crisp. 10,000 terms, translated in each of those languages. How to open up interesting writings in major languages, with a book that is crashingly dull to read by itself. $12
J. P. Nichol: The System of the World. First American edition, James Munroe 1848. Glasgow astronomer wholeheartedly swallows that all nebulae are galaxies, waxes awesome. Many were proven to be such, since the 1920s; others are much nearer gas clouds or star clusters. 14 plates including objects as seen by the then-new 72-inch reflector of Lord Rosse in Ireland. Spine caught some light-blue paint from an errant paintbrush some time before I bought this copy in 1979. $125
J. P. Nichol: The Planetary System. Bailliere 1851. Neptune having been discovered in 1846 with much hoopla, public interest spurred this University of Glasgow astronomer to write a fresh popularization about the solar system. Very heavy beveled board covers, 5 plates, several in-text line drawings. Rare. $375.
William Noble: Hours With a Three-Inch Telescope. Longmans, Green 1887. Rare narrative of an enthusiast with a portable refracting telescope who communicates the thrilling detail of the Moon and its ever-moving shadows. The frontispiece (detached but present) is a Moon map. Many drawings show specific Moon features, double stars, and some Messier objects. Previous owner: Armand Spitz. 122 p. $100
William Tyler Olcott: A Field Book of the Stars. rare 3d ed revised, 1935. Putnam. Arranged by constellation and by season, tells what to seek with a small telescope. An early edition of a book that was popular for generations, and still useful. $49
Gerard K. O’Neill: 2081 A Hopeful View of the Human Future. Simon & Schuster 1981. Drivers: computers, automation, space colonies, energy, and communications. If they are used for good instead of bad, good results. $10
Stacy Palen & Ana M. Larson: Learning Astronomy by Doing Astronomy. Norton 2015. 30 activities that students can collaborate on. Most should be usable for decades, maybe centuries. Paperback, 3-hole punched. Never used but shelf-worn. $15
* SOLD * Stacy Palen, Laura Kay, Brad Smith, & George Blumenthal: Understanding Our Universe. Norton 2012. High quality, well-illustrated paperback textbook, conventional arrangement. Never used but shelf-worn. Big and heavy.
Jay M. Pasachoff: Contemporary Astronomy. 2d ed 1981. Saunders. Good textbook for typical college students. Autographed by Pasachoff. $5
— 3d ed 1985, Paperback, worn cover, contents good. Autographed by Pasachoff. $1
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: Stars and Clusters. Harvard U Pr 1979, one of the Harvard Books on Astronomy. Hardback, very nice condition. Detailed examination of the many types of stars and their roles, by the astronomer who figured out they’re made of hydrogen, not rock and metal. $35
George Philip: Signpost to the Stars. 4th ed 1981. 32-page pamphlet of prominent constellations. $3
Mary Proctor: Romance of the Planets. First edition, Harper 1929. An easy-language popularization by the daughter of Richard Proctor [see following books]. Her previous Romance books were of the Sun, the Moon, and Comets. Rare. Fine condition. $59
Mary Proctor: Our Stars Month by Month. Warne 1937. Shelfworn, contents sharp. What to notice with the naked eye. After World War II started a couple years later, cities were blacked out in defense against air raids and coastal torpedoing, and the starfilled sky returned immediately. Awed by its novelty, and deprived of bright diversions, star watching became popular. After “the lights came on, all over the world” with the end of the war in 1945, the joy of not being shot at overwhelmed the calm pleasure of constellations. Light pollution continues to grow. $40
Richard A. Proctor: Lessons in Elementary Astronomy. 2d ed Cassell, Peter, and Galpin, 1871. 127 p + 16 p publisher ads. For children. Many small woodcuts, several rather primitive. 16mo. rare. $60
Richard A. Proctor: A New Star Atlas, intended to supplement Webb’s Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. 17th ed, Longmans, Green 1893. Cleverly planned and executed pocket-size atlas, even indicates a century’s precession, and could indeed still be used now. Only the spine is a bit faded; the red cloth boards (matching Proctor’s other books) and all the inside pages are extremely well preserved: the book may have seen starlight, but was not exposed to sunlight. $75
M. Radovsky: Alexander Popov: Inventor of Radio. Foreign Languages Publishing, Moscow, 1957. ex lib, marked. Cover and text quite good. Popov wasn’t aiming to invent radio, but was trying to communicate with ships, and his device was, in retrospect, a primitive radio. Rare. $39
Jurgen Rahe, Bertram Donn, & Karl Wurm: Atlas of Cometary Forms: Structures Near the Nucleus. NASA SP-198, quarto, 1969. The very best images then available, showing each comet to be distinctly individual. $20
* SOLD * George Reed: The Astronomy of One Constellation. Kendall/Hunt 1976. Paperback. Teaching Astronomy using Orion was an interesting idea. Maybe someone should try it again. In the educational fashion of 1976, each chapter had an essay, followed by “competency measures”, activities, and supplements.
Evgeny Riabchikov: Russians in Space. “prepared by Novosti Press Agency, Moscow”, Doubleday 1971. 300 pages. Russia’s version of Russia’s space program, deep in Cold War/Iron Curtain times. Pride and propaganda shine through, but how much was *true*? $15
Mario Rigutti, translated by Mirella Giacconi: A Hundred Billion Stars. MIT Pr 1984. Hardback with dust jacket, both in very good condition. Popularization concentrating on stars, lightened by the author’s personality. $12
Nancy G. Roman, ed: Comparison of the Large-Scale Structure of the Galactic System With That of Other Stellar Systems. IAU Symposium 5. Cambridge U Pr 1958. 73p. Very nice, tight condition except age-browning, and blemishes from very old cellophane tape on the dust jacket. Many iron-curtain participants because the symposium was held in a neutral country (Ireland) consecutive with an IAU General Assembly. NASA’s next observatory satellite carries the editor’s name, on a Hubble-size infrared scope with 100 times Hubble’s field of view. $22
Frank Ross, Jr: Space Science and You. Juv. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1970. Communications, weather, agriculture, hydrology, geology, cartography, navigation, technology. Heavily illustrated. ex-lib. $6
F,. James Rutherford et al: Motion in the Heavens. Text and Handbook 2 from the [Harvard] Project Physics course, meant for high school seniors. Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1970. Worn paperback. Astronomy’s cameo in the Harvard Physics course was figuring out how planets move, largely by Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and Newton 1500s-1700s. $12
F. James Rutherford, editor: Motion in the Heavens. Reader 2 from the [Harvard] Project Physics course, meant for high school seniors. Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1970. Paperback. 26 excerpts from the literature, about 1/3 venturing far beyond solar system motions. Still a stimulating anthology. $15
Neil P. Ruzic: The Case for Going to the Moon. Putnam 1965. Vacuum, Manufacturing, Mining, Technology Transfer, Seeing the Universe, Life Beyond Earth. $13
N. A. Rynin: Interplanetary Flight and Communication: Superaviation and Superartillery. Flight of airplanes and missiles above the troposphere, in and above the stratosphere. Translated from the 1929 original. NASA TT F-645, 1971. Very curious. $25
N. A. Rynin: Interplanetary Flight and Communication: Astronavigation. Navigating in Space, not on Earth by stars. Translated from the 1932 original. NASA TT F-648, 1971. Very curious. $25
Carl Sagan & Jonathan Norton Leonard: Planets. Life Science Library 1969. Quarto. Gorgeous pictures! Banged cover. $5
Science from Shipboard. Science Service 1943. “For those who cross the seas in ships to fight for freedom.” Paperback, browning, now brittle. “Prepared by a group of scientific writers and artists under the guidance of the Boston-Cambridge Branch of the American Association of Scientific Workers.” Waves, Wind, and Weather - Sun, Moon, and Planets - Time, the Calendar, and the Sundial - The Stars the World Over - Stars and Nebulae - Navigation - Ocean Islands and Shore Lines - Sea Life - Oceanic Birds - Your Ship - Yourself. $20
Samuel G. Bayne: The Pith of Astronomy. Harper 1896. 122 p. Non-technical survey. Nice drawing of Saturn on the front cover. First owned by Rhode Island astronomer Frank E. Seagrave; then by Harvard College Observatory; from which I bought it in 1981. Seagrave and I wrote our names in it, Harvard used a bookplate, all present though detached. Are you going to be consecutive documented owner #4? $80
Garrett P. Serviss: The Moon. Appleton 1907. Through the phases with dramatic mountains and craters. Final chapter is “Great Scenes On The Moon”, a real treat. Previous owner: Armand Spitz. $400
Harlow Shapley: Of Stars and Men. 2d ed, Beacon, 1964. Illustrated by Richard C. Bartlett. Quarto. Shapley was among the most prominent astronomers of his time, less remembered lately. $3
Joel Dorman Steele: New Descriptive Astronomy. American Book Co 1895. Heavily illustrated textbook for high school students; first ed was 1869 (described in the following article); spottily updated in the 1880s and ’90s. Quite thorough. Popular throughout the US, far less dull than Young’s competitor. Binding rather beaten up (did the students take it home on a buckboard?), pages and illustrations still sharp. $40
Robert E. Stencel, ed: 1982-1984 Eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae. NASA CP-2384. Paperback proceedings of a 1985 workshop in Tucson. Many graphs, a few equations: astronomers talking to other astronomers. The challenge of the unknown pervades the whole book, but they hadn’t yet figured out the eclipser is a tilted disc. $10
Third Earth Resources Technology Satellite — 1 Symposium, Volume I: Technical Presentations, Section A; and an equally fat book for Section B; the 2 books together = NASA SP-351. The satellite had only been orbiting for a year when the symposium was held in 1973. I remember the exciting, detailed satellite photos, and the science derived from them, though even better imagery is now available online at the drop of a query. The 2 massive volumes together $25, plus the actual shipping cost.
Shirley Thomas: Men of Space, vol 8. Chilton 1968. European Space Organizations, and International Scientific Groups. $11
Dorothy A. Treat: The Hanna Star Dome. Pocket Natural History No. 6, 2nd ed, 1939, Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Brochure format, 48p. Fun-facts on astronomy, with a very light touch, meant for students and the under-educated public. The Hanna Star Dome is a solid copper dome with a tiny light bulb for each star. This opened in 1936 and was replaced by a projection planetarium in the 1950s. The Hanna Star Dome is now an exhibit at Pittsburgh’s planetarium, refitted with fiber optics. Previous owner: Armand Spitz, creator of the projector that displaced the copper dome. $4
——-4th edition 1951, retitled A Guide to the Stars, otherwise quite similar to 1939’s. Previous owner: Armand Spitz, creator of the projector that displaced the copper dome the next year. $4
S. Treeby: The Elements of Astronomy; with methods for determining the longitudes, aspects, &c. of the planets for any future time; and an extensive set of geographical and astronomical problems on the globes. Designed for the use of schools and junior students. 2d American edition 1826. Missing 2 plates. 16mo. $100.
Leo Virg: Twenty Trillion Light-Years Through Space. Vantage 1958. Science Fiction novel. $5
Mary Ward: The Telescope. 6th ed, Groombridge 1880?. Gold-stamped illustrated cover, all edges gilt, several plates in color. She was long experienced in using microscopes, artfully drawing what she saw, and publishing books about that. Mrs. Ward was a cousin and frequent visitor to Lord Rosse, using his enormous telescope and enjoying his scientific visitors in Ireland. When some of Lord Rosse’s sons attached a steam engine to a carriage in 1869 — making an automobile — she rode in it with them. She fell off at a turn in the road, a wheel ran over her, and she died instantly of a broken neck: the first person known to be killed by an automobile. $200
T. W. Webb: Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. Vol I: The Solar System. Dover reprint, 1962, tight and bright. Meticulously points out what to observe. Still useful. $10
Windsor Press: Science Milestones. 1954. Anthology of condensations of popular articles about 61 scientists since Antiquity. Useful quick introductions from an era before Wikipedia. $10
Dael Wolfle, ed: Symposium on Basic Research (NAS, AAAS, & Sloan Fdn.) Publication 56, AAAS, 1959. 308 p, scuffed hard cover. Leaders of basic research told what they wanted, not only in funding. Some of it eventually happened. $7
R. van der Riet Woolley: A Key to the Stars. 3d ed, Philosophical Library, 1957. Very basics of astronomy. $7
Charles A. Young: The Sun and the Phenomena of its Atmosphere. Chatfield 1872. This thin popularization is #8 in the Yale-based “University Series”. 54 pages, paperback. Poorly treated by the years: The spine is in tatters but still holds together. The pages have been water-stained from the top and from the bottom, but are still quite readable. The covers, just thin paper, are brittle but still mostly there. Even the scientific description remains reasonable because the Sun does indeed look like it says. All hanging on, waiting for you to read them. very rare. $25
Felix Zigel: Wonders of the Night Sky. Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1968. A Soviet take on astronomy, by constellation with the seasons, including many attributions not then widely known west of the Iron Curtain. Rare. Nearly-new condition: I bought it from the publisher, and have only referred to it rarely. $49
O. T. Zimmerman & Irvin Lavine: Scientific and Technical Abbreviations, Signs and Symbols. Rare first ed, Industrial Research Service 1948. ex lib but was kept at the reference desk, not checked out, so lightly used except worn spine. $8
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Here’s one very successful example of what you can do with books, in addition to sitting and reading them. I used it on day 2 of every intro-astro course I taught 1989-2022. The students always paid rapt attention and applauded loudly at the end. It should work just as well in any subject in which knowledge progresses.
👉🏿 I can sell appropriate sets for many astronomers, and partial sets for one geologist and one chemist. A few of those volumes are posted above, but many still need processing.
Your Textbook
© 2002 Norman Sperling. Excerpted from What Your Astronomy Textbook Won't Tell You, 978-0913399-04-0.
Whichever textbook you use, you need to understand its context.
Your textbook contains a lot of features to help you learn the concepts and information. Use the captions, the glossary, the learning objectives, the chapter-end questions, and the further readings, every time they'll help you learn, not only when your prof assigns them.
Your textbook is far more up-to-date, much better illustrated, and far more informative than my introductory-astronomy textbook:
George Abell: Exploration of the Universe, 1964
I used George Abell's Exploration of the Universe in 1965 as a freshman at Michigan State. It was exciting! Not only did it shovel nifty information at me, it conveyed the excitement of research, and the latest perspectives. It even included a few color pictures. (Textbooks didn't get color on every page till the late 1980s. Prices skyrocketed because that's a lot more expensive to prepare and print.)
When I look at Abell's textbook now, however, I cannot help but chuckle. It is so naïve, so ignorant! The pictures look crude, because we have much better technology nowadays. The data are elementary. Spacecraft had only just reached Mars and Venus. Some concepts seem rather strange because we think of those things differently now. There is no mention of background radiation (discovered later that year) or pulsars (they weren't discovered till 1968), and no spacecraft pictures of Jupiter. Computers were huge, clunky, and rare. In so many ways, they didn't understand their clues – they didn't know impact craters pepper the whole solar system, and they didn't know rings circle all the big planets.
But my text was certainly a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era. The fact that it gave me no hint of all that was to come reveals a trait common to most textbooks: they are overly-positive. They concentrate so much on what they DO know that they neglect to point out what they DON'T know.
Abell's book was definitely a big improvement over the previous dominant textbook:
Robert H. Baker: Astronomy, 1930
Baker's book went through 10 editions from 1930 clear into the 1970s, a huge span for any textbook. I often checked it out of my city library while in high school, and was surprised it was not the one my prof required in college … surprised, and soon happy. That's because Abell deliberately included astronomy's excitement, and Baker never did. All the data and pictures and understandings of its time are there – the pictures were the very best available – but recited in a dry, declaratory way. That's the kind of person Baker was. Charles J. Peterson relays this story witnessed by a former student of Baker's:
One day a student approached Baker in his office at the University of Illinois to seek help on a concept which he was having difficulty understanding. Baker reached over to his bookshelf for the latest edition of his text. He thumbed to the relevant page and proceeded to read the paragraph pertaining to the student's inquiry.
"I don't understand," responded the student.
Baker read the paragraph a second time.
"That's what I don't understand," replied the student.
Baker then read the paragraph for a third time.
"But I still don't understand," lamented the poor student.
Baker returned the volume to the bookshelf and turned to face the student. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you," he said. "I've given it the best shot I can."
Baker's book is a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era, but laughable now. It is so naïve, so ignorant! How primitive they were! They didn't know that galaxies were a big story. Spacecraft were still science fiction. Computers were undreamt of. And so on. Astronomers back then were just as smart and clever as modern ones, but they had a lot less to go on, and it shows.
Nevertheless, Baker's book marked a major improvement over:
Forest Ray Moulton: Astronomy, 1906
Moulton was a leading astronomer of his time, teaming with Thomas C. Chamberlain to propose how the solar system might have formed as a result of another star coming very close to the Sun. Though later data disproved the Chamberlain-Moulton theory, it was advanced for its era.
Moulton's book is now a giggle-factory. The writing is not just passive-dull but downright stodgy. The contents are so naïve, so ignorant! This was before radio astronomy, before anyone knew how fusion works. It's not that much is wrong, but it sure makes you appreciate how much has been learned since then.
Yet it, too, was a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era: full of the latest data, and a few recent pictures. And Moulton marched in the forefront of education: his book was also chopped into small sections and marketed for correspondence courses, an early form of "distance learning". Moulton's textbook first appeared in 1906, and remained in print through the edition of 1938.
For all its shortcomings, Moulton's text was a major improvement over the previous dominant text:
Charles A. Young:
A Textbook of General Astronomy for Colleges and Scientific Schools, 1888
Young was a veritable textbook factory. He produced several different levels of text, topped by this full-math version for the most technical students, and cut down successively for non-math college students, high-school students, and, in Lessons in Astronomy, for junior-high. I've often thought that should have been titled "Lessens" because of how much Young lessened the book. General Astronomy went through about 7 editions from 1888 to 1916.
This book tells you what astronomy knew at the time. It is so naïve, so ignorant! This was before most astrophotography, before mountaintop observatories, before anyone understood stellar spectra or how celestial objects evolve. Reading and laughing at an edition of this, which a student had picked up at a flea market, got me started in studying old textbooks. (Thank you, Carin!) Despite how poorly it has aged, it was a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its age. And, in turn, a major improvement over:
J. Dorman Steele:
A Fourteen Weeks Course in Astronomy, 1869
Steele was also a textbook-factory. He wrote A Fourteen Weeks Course in Chemistry, A Fourteen Weeks Course in Natural Philosophy, A Fourteen Weeks Course in Geology and others. They were illustrated with the latest woodcuts. And they told what astronomy understood back then. It is so naïve, so ignorant! And so awkward! They didn't yet have mountaintop observatories or much stellar spectroscopy. If you read Steele's book now, read it for humor or history, not for modern astronomy. Modern it is NOT! Steele published several editions from 1869 to 1899. But it was a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era. And, especially for readability, a huge improvement over:
Sir John Herschel: Outlines of Astronomy, 1830
For the 90 years from the time the author's father, William Herschel, discovered Uranus in 1781, till John Herschel died in 1871, they were dominant authorities. His is not merely a textbook but a compendium: it is intended to record full information about the entire subject. Practically every astronomer who could read English kept a copy of this book as the first place to check for information. Usually, they could find answers in Herschel. Only if this source failed did they seek another. And yet any student passing intro-astro now should be able to amplify many of the topics. Herschel's book isn't wrong, but it is very fragmentary.
The first edition was an instant hit in 1830, and new editions kept coming, and coming, and coming. John Herschel died 41 years later, but the book still stayed in print; the final edition came out in 1905. A 75-year press run! Staggering!
Though this book contains all the information you could want, it conveys absolutely no interest at all. Even the dullest lecturer is better than this! All the excitement had to come from the reader, because none can be found in the book itself. And, of course, the stilted language further highlights its age. It is so naïve, so ignorant, so turgid! This was before spectroscopy, before the physical nature of most celestial objects could even be described. Yet it was globally-proclaimed as a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era. And it was quite an improvement over:
John Bonnycastle:
An Introduction of Astronomy in a Series of Letters from a Preceptor to his Pupil, 1786
This text is the earliest to which I've been able to trace the modern arrangement of topics. While things have certainly changed a lot in proportions and details, it seems to have been Bonnycastle whose arrangement was tweaked by succeeding authors to evolve into the common one used today.
This book is hard to read, not only because of its antiquated language, but also because of its antiquated typography: the "s" is a half-crossed "f", "ct" uses a flowery ligature, and so on. The bulk of this book deals with how things move, because almost nothing was known about what they are physically made of. This was before telescopes grew wider than 25 cm. This book is a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era. 8 editions of Bonnycastle's book were published in England between 1786 and 1822. It is so naïve, so ignorant! And so hilarious! Yet, in its time, it was a major improvement over:
James Ferguson:
An Easy Introduction to Astronomy, for Young Gentlemen and Ladies: Describing The Figure, Motions, and Dimensions of the Earth; the different Seasons; Gravity and Light; the Solar System; the Transit of Venus, and its Use in Astronomy; the Moon's Motion and Phases; the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon; the Cause of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea, &c., 1768
James Ferguson had a full-size text (said to have interested William Herschel in astronomy) as well as this cut-down version.
This one takes the literary form of a dialog between college-man Neander and his sister Eudosia. Neander is home for term break, and his sister is pumping him for all the neat stuff he learned in his astronomy course. In the middle of page 75, Eudosia sighs.
Neander: Why do you sigh, Eudosia?
Eudosia: Because there is not an university for ladies as well as for gentlemen. Why, Neander, should our sex be kept in total ignorance of any science, which would make us as much better than we are, as it would make us wiser?
Neander: You are far from being singular in this respect. I have the pleasure of being acquainted with many ladies who think as you do. But if fathers would do justice to their daughters, brothers to their sisters, and husbands to their wives, there would be no occasion for an university for the ladies; because, if those could not instruct these themselves, they might find others who could. And the consequence would be, that the ladies would have a rational way of spending their time at home, and would have no taste for the too common and expensive ways of murdering it, by going abroad to card-tables, balls, and plays: and then, how much better wives, mothers, and mistresses they would be, is obvious to the common sense of mankind. – The misfortune is, there are but few men who know these things: and where that is the case, they think the ladies have no business with them; and very absurdly imagine, because they know nothing of science themselves, that it is beyond the reach of women's capacities.
Eudosia: But is there no danger of our sex's become too vain and proud, if they understood these things as well as you do?
Neander: I am surprised to hear you talk so oddly. – Have you forgot what you told me two days ago? namely, that if you had been proud before, the knowledge of Astronomy, you believed, would make you humble?
Proto-feminism, 1768!
Neander's name means "new man". New, because he's going to college, even though he is from the newly risen moneyed commoners. Until his time, to attend either Oxford or Cambridge (the only colleges in England), one had to be a white, male, member of the Church of England, and member either of the nobility or the clergy. By that standard, I suppose that not one single one of my thousands of students would get into college! How about you? Well, they let us all in now. Let's make the best of it while we're here!
The Ferguson book now makes great comedy for its literary form, as well as for its phrasing and scientific contents. It is so naïve, so ignorant! And so hilarious! This was before Uranus was discovered, before gravity was proven to work beyond the solar system. The first edition was published in England in 1768, and the last in the US in 1819. Yet it was a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its times, and a major improvement over:
William Whiston: Astronomical Lectures Read in the Publick Schools at Cambridge, 1715
Whiston was Isaac Newton's hand-picked successor as Lucasian professor at Cambridge. (Other famous Lucasian professors: early 2000s – Stephen Hawking; 2400s – Cmdr. Data.) Whiston had a varied career worth looking into. This book poses many difficulties for the modern reader: antiquated typography, stilted phrasing, passive dullness, and overwhelming concern with the today-minor issue of sky motions. Whiston published a Latin edition in 1707, his first English edition in 1715, and a second in 1727, the year Newton died. It is so naïve, so ignorant! And so hilarious! This was before achromatic telescopes, before the first predicted return of Halley's Comet. While the contents aren't wrong, they barely hint at the main thrusts of modern science. Yet Whiston's book was, in its turn, a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of its era, and a major improvement over its predecessors ...
Past, Present, and Future
You get the point. Astronomy (if not its college textbooks) goes back to early printing, to mediaeval manuscripts, to ancient scrolls, to cuneiform clay tablets and hieroglyphic-engraved stone monuments. And because scientific knowledge progresses, each edition ages rather poorly, and after a while serves better as a poor example than a good one.
Your text stands at the front of this long line. It is the modern culmination of all these successive approximations to what astronomers had learned about the universe. It is a good-faith rendition of the astronomy of right now. It tells the best anyone knows. With spacecraft that have gone as far as ours, with telescopes as big as ours, this is what we have learned.
And it won't end with your book! The author is probably already updating it for the next edition. And future authors will publish new ones after that. Some of what it says may be wrong, but since we don't know which things, we teach as best we know. Many future discoveries will bring system to current odds-and-ends. Many future discoveries will bring up important aspects scarcely hinted at so far. But we can't teach them, because that stuff hasn't been learned yet.
20 years from now, we'll know a lot better than some of the things in your book. Will you be the author of that one? 50 years from now, a better text will outmode that one. And 100 years from now, a more-improved version will relegate that one to humor. And 1000 years from now, all those will look hopelessly naïve, ignorant, and mistaken! And hilarious!
We teach what we know and understand now because that's the best we can do. That's what your book tells, in all good faith, however incomplete or mistaken it may turn out to be. Study it well, use it for all it's worth, learn it as the best anyone can do so far, but learn it as a framework into which the improvements of the future can be plugged in.