Eclipse -- Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon
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- USD 15.99
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- USD 15.99
Publisher Description
On 21 August 2017, over 100 million people will gather in a narrow belt across the USA to witness the most watched total solar eclipse in history. Eclipse - Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon, written by the widely read popular science author Frank Close, describes the spellbinding allure of this most beautiful natural phenomenon. The book explains why eclipses happen, reveals their role in history, literature and myth, and focuses on eclipse chasers, who travel with ecstatic fervour to some of the most inaccessible places on the globe to be present at the moment of totality. The book includes the author's quest to solve a 3000 years old mystery: how did the moon move backwards during a total solar eclipse, as claimed in the Book of Joshua?
It is an inspirational tale: how a teacher and an eclipse inspired the author, aged eight, to a life in science, and a love affair with eclipses, which takes him to a war zone in the Western Sahara, to the South Pacific and the African bush. The tale comes full circle with another eight-year old boy - the author's grandson - at the 2017 great American eclipse. Readers of all ages will be drawn to this inspirational chronicle of the mesmerizing experience of total solar eclipse.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Close (The Infinity Puzzle), a professor of physics at Oxford, recounts his longstanding fascination with eclipses in a volume that blends travel diary and science tutorial. Starting with a 1954 partial eclipse that Close saw as a boy in the English countryside, he leads readers through his journeys to Zambia, Morocco, the South Pacific, and beyond in pursuit of the moon's shadow. In chapters loosely organized by specific eclipses, Close shares both the fundamentals of such adventures and the science behind this celestial configuration. Through his chummy and conversational vignettes, readers learn about mitigating inclement weather, eye safety, and the upcoming 2017 and 2024 North American eclipses. Diving deeper, Close demonstrates the scientific value of this phenomenon. Ancients and contemporaries alike used eclipses to learn about our planet and our sun, and experts accurately dated Jesus's crucifixion and other biblical events "thanks to astronomy." Close's simple, winding, and occasionally evocative language is tinged with nostalgia, and his readers will see both the humanist and scientific elements involved in the "exquisite alignment of sun, moon, and earth." Close provides eyewitness account from regular people and personal reflections on seeing totality, convincingly demonstrating that there is nothing better than standing in lunar darkness and feeling "humbled by the ability of science to predict."
