The Turtle and the Stars Observations of an Earthbound Astronomer

by Upgren, Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780805070941
• ISBN10: 080507094X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-09
• Publisher: Times Books

Summary

No matter where we travel on Earth, the sky is the one great constant, bearing extraordinary colors and images in every kind of weather. Modern astronomy has revealed many secrets of the sky, and now the most intriguing ones have been distilled for a popular audience. With illustrations and engaging text, The Turtle and the Stars brings stargazers face-to-face with facts and lore. Topics include: What color is the atmosphere of Mars, and might it someday appear as blue as ours? How does the Milky Way cast shadows? Why is it that we never see the sunset as its actually occurring? Earthly questions range from why the Taj Mahal glimmers when you gaze up at it to why the top of the Empire State Building travels farther than its lower floors each day. With contagious enthusiasm, Arthur Upgren also invites us to contemplate the natural beauty of the universe through recollecting scenes such as a leatherback turtle depositing her eggs under a sky lit only by Venus, or witnessing a total solar eclipse in Venezuela. A treasure trove of facts sprinkled with references to history, literature, film, and music, this is the ultimate tour for armchair astronomers and naturalists alike.

Author Biography

Arthur Upgren, Ph.D., is senior research scientist in the astronomy department at Yale and the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also the author of Weather: How It Works and Why It Matters and Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction: Dark Skies: A Right, Not a Privilege	xvii
PART I. Light and Dark
The Turtle and the Stars	3	(4)
Nightfall	7	(12)
Human Bonding During a Total Eclipse	19	(6)
Towers on a Rotating Ball	25	(9)
The Cathedral at Chartres and the Nature of Light	34	(11)
How Far Is Up?	45	(12)
Of Time and the Sky	57	(16)
PART II. The Larger Sky
Full Moon and Mumpsimus	73	(8)
The Amazing Analemma	81	(9)
Almost-Round Earth	90	(10)
Brahms, Coincidence, and the Star of Bethlehem	100	(5)
Transits and Other Syzygies	105	(5)
The Clockwork Sky	110	(7)
Battle in the Sky	117	(4)
On a Starry Night	121	(6)
PART III. The Sky Through History
A Green Mars in the Sky?	127	(10)
Astrometry and Creationism	137	(6)
Those Universal and Unalienable Laws	143	(6)
The Egg and the Equinox	149	(9)
Planets, Gods, and Constellations	158	(11)
Our Milky Way and Other Galaxies	169	(9)
Planets, Stars, and Drake's Equation	178	(7)
PART IV. The Vulnerable Sky
The Fate of the Sky	185	(4)
Light Pollution: A Change of Paradigm	189	(12)
Glare	201	(5)
The Endangered Heavens	206	(5)
Afterword: Godel's Theorem and Other Science Esoterica	211	(6)
Appendix I	217	(4)
Appendix II	221	(4)
Glossary	225	(8)
Bibliography	233	(4)
Acknowledgments	237	(2)
Index	239	(12)
Author's Note	251