Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris

Read moreįerris combines three different narrative lines in Seeing in the Dark. Ferris cleared it up for me, once and for all. I think too many people use those words interchangeably. I learned of a new place I want to visit, the Roden Crater in Arizona and I learned the difference between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite.

Lastly, Seeing in the Dark is broad-based educational. Because of his success with his band, Queen, he has been able to support his hobby of backyard stargazing with better technology than the average hobbyist. If he hadn't been a musician be would have been an astronomer. Seeing in the Dark is also about the collaborations between backyard stargazers and the people who have the money to make research happen. It's about sharing conversations with other amateurs, proving once and for all amateur stargazers really know what they are doing, despite not having the big buck telescopes and high-end gadgets. He takes us back to when he was just a kid, looking up in the Florida night sky, dreaming about rockets and moon walks witnessing his first solar eclipse. This is a memoir about Ferris's childhood cardboard telescope dreams becoming reality. This isn't just about deep space, astronomy and star gazing. Read moreįerris writes with such an easy style. His ability to describe the wonders of the universe is simply magical, and his enthusiasm for his subject is irresistible. The appendix includes star charts, observing lists, and a guide on how to get involved in astronomy.įerris takes us inside a major revolution sweeping astronomy, as lone amateur astronomers, in global networks linked by the Internet, make important discoveries that are the envy of the professionals. In addition, Ferris offers an authoritative and engaging report on what's out there to be seen - what Saturn, the Ring nebula, the Silver Coin galaxy, and the Virgo supercluster really are and how to find them. He recounts his own experiences as an enthralled lifelong amateur astronomer and reports from around the globe - from England and Italy to the Florida Keys and the Chilean Andes - on the revolution that's putting millions in touch with the night sky. In Seeing in the Dark, a poetic love letter to science and to the skies, Timothy Ferris invites us all to become stargazers.

Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris