Under Alien Skies
A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe

A spectacular and extremely accessible whistle-stop tour of the cosmos. I am usually quite reserved when reviewing these types of books, but this simply ticked all the boxes for me. It is hard to find a book about astronomy which straddles the thin line between being highly detailed and yet still rema......more

One of my favorite memories is from a field trip I took with a college Astronomy class to a mountain-top observatory. Somehow or other the professor had been able to arrange for us to get time using one of the older, smaller telescopes, and a group of us stayed awake all night to take advantage of t......more

2.5⭐ This is a book by a nerd, for nerds. Science blogger and popularizer (and self described nerd) Phillip Plait has written an armchair space tourist's guide to the solar system and beyond. He starts with the "alien skies" you would see from the Moon, Mars, asteroids, Saturn, Pluto. This was the st......more

I am recommending to the highest degree the science book ‘Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe’ by Philip Plait. The book is written with the general reader in mind, yet it is at heart a science-love ballad by a total astronomy nerd who has a great visual imagination. How can I tel......more

From blue sunrises on Mars to the rings of Saturn Ever found yourself wondering on how it would be to stroll through the lunar craters or witness the majestic rings of Saturn from Saturn itself? Or how the sky would look like from an Earth-like planet, orbiting around two or more suns. In this book,......more