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Title: Magnificent Mars by Ken Croswell ISBN: 0-7432-2601-1 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 05 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Stunning - a delight to the eye & rich in real science
Comment: I found Magnificent Mars to be the very best of the current books on this amazing and beautiful planet. It does two things remarkably well. First, it delights both the eye and the imagination with spectacular large-format photography. Secondly, author and astronomer Ken Croswell leads the reader with an eloquent and easy to read style through a clearly well-researched tour of the latest science about Mars - its fascinating history, and its importance in understanding our own planet Earth and the possible emergence of life elsewhere in the solar system.
What you notice first is the grand scale and beauty of this book. Measuring almost 11"x14", this coffee-table sized volume presents what must be about a hundred spectacular full-page color photographs, a variety of maps, and fascinating tables about the history and physical data of Mars. These images are stunning.
Being something of a photo buff myself, I was struck by the extremely high reproduction quality of the photos. These are the very best Mars images from HST, Viking, Mars Global Surveyor, Pathfinder and so on. But they seem even better. The author mentions that many were digitally reprocessed by Tony Hallas, an expert astrophotographer. The results are just astonishing, and a delight to the eye for sharpness and drama.
For weeks, this beautiful book sat on my coffee table in the living room. Invariably, I found even my non-astronomy friends and family amazed and delighted as they leafed through the dramatic images.
A word of caution - don't let the beautiful cover fool you into thinking this is just another coffee-table picture book. Far from it.
As a science teacher, I was deeply impressed with the hard science that Croswell presents in this book. He organizes the text around the themes of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Each section illustrates and describes the dramatically changing geology, atmosphere, volcanic landscape, and water in the life of Mars. Was Mars once lush with water and far warmer than today? Could life have sprouted there as it did on Earth?
Beautiful pictures aside, the "beautiful science" of the accompanying text is what really grabbed me. Croswell presents the careful research that reveals Mars as a complex and amazing planet with a dramatic history of change. His description of sweeping changes in the landscape and atmosphere of Mars during its three major phases (Noachian, Hesperian, and Amazonian) will be easily read and enjoyed by any scientifically curious person.
Magnificent Mars is beautiful, scientifically rich, and highly recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautiful photos of the real Mars... but
Comment: A really beautiful book about the red planet but the author makes me cringe with all his "facts" which were never proven, and further more can never be proven. Galieo took some great photos of Mars but I do not believe we were able to land the rover "Spirit" there. We just aren't technologically up to it yet. The recent pics being 'beamed-back'immediately reminded me of my recent trip to ICELAND which has the same exact landscape (glacerial subterranian volcanic), hence all the volcanic rocks all over the ground. Photoshop adds the red tint... and VOILA!
We are living in the land of Oz. Don't be mentally lazy; Look behind the curtain.
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Title: A Traveler's Guide to Mars: The Mysterious Landscapes of the Red Planet by William K. Hartmann ISBN: 0761126066 Publisher: Workman Publishing Company Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes by Michael Benson ISBN: 0810945312 Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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Title: Voyager's Grand Tour: To the Outer Planets and Beyond (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series) by Henry C. Dethloff, Ronald A. Schorn ISBN: 1588341240 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: The Moons of Jupiter by Kristin Leutwyler, John R. Casani ISBN: 0393050602 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 06 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Smithsonian Book of Mars by Joseph M. Boyce ISBN: 1588340740 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
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