Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Society & Social Sciences

SUN MOON EARTH

Tyler Nordgren

The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets

Today, solar eclipses are major tourist attractions. Some 30,000 people converged on the Yangtze Delta to see a 2009 eclipse (including 80 chartered flights to view the eclipse from above the clouds). But long before it felt safe to cheer for the sun’s disappearance behind the moon, and long before we knew with any certainty how to predict eclipses with near perfect certainty, these events were the cause of sheer terror. SUN MOON EARTH chronicles this very human relationship to a celestial phenomenon and shows how eclipses have and will continue to play a significant part in the way we see and explain the universe.

But long before it felt safe to cheer for the sun’s disappearance behind the moon, and long before we knew with any certainty how to predict eclipses with near perfect certainty, these events were the cause of sheer terror. Primitive man - desperate to find order in an unpredictable and dangerous world – brought mythological, folkloric, and religious explanations to bear on a disruptive and unpredictable phenomenon. Eclipses had a fascinating story of human imagination and the emergence of science itself. SUN MOON EARTH chronicles this very human relationship to a celestial phenomenon and shows how eclipses have and will continue to play a significant part in the way we see and explain the universe. For when the worlds aligned perceptive viewers increasingly understood that eclipses were in fact opening a window onto a more significant order at work, one that truly does explain the world. Eclipses have gone on to play key roles in the most major scientific discoveries and, still today, satellites use eclipses to detect planets in distant solar systems. Dr. Tyler Nordgren is an author, astronomer, professor, and eclipse-chaser. He is the astronomy expert on eclipse-chasing voyages and works closely with the U.S. National Parks Service, traveling the country giving public talks about astronomy and the night sky. He is also an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries form New York to Wyoming. The cover is designed by the author himself. http://www.tylernordgren.com/see-the-milky-way/ http://www.tylernordgren.com/planetary-parks/

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Book Published 2016-08-01 by Basic

Comments

“A breezy yet substantive appreciation of a rare and beautiful celestial phenomenon, ideal for astronomy nuts and fans of popular science.” —Library Journal

“Nordgren’s appealing work covers the history of man’s varied reactions to both solar and lunar eclipses, from the Mayan mention of these phenomena in codices to the current clique of “coronaphiles” who chase eclipses around the world…[An] enthusiastic and informative guide.” —Booklist

… the book’s appeal is also poetic; to the author, nothing less than 'the secrets of the universe have been revealed to us by shadows stretching over the light-years between stars.'A charming natural history of eclipses and a guide to witnessing the awe-inspiring event yourself. Read more...

Astronomer Nordgren illustrates how this apparently unnatural phenomenon was transformed from a fearsome omen to a tourist attraction. Traveling through history, he shows how different cultures interpreted these dramatic events.

Nordgren…lyrically relates the long, fascinating history of the human relationship with eclipses…He sprinkles his history and scientific explanations with delightful comments and personal anecdotes that highlight his joy in his work.

“On 21 August 2017, the United States will experience its first total solar eclipse in 40 years. Astronomer Tyler Nordgren’s primer maps essentials for that event, contextualized by a fascinating history that sweeps us from Anaxagoras’ explanation of eclipses in the fifth century BC to Arthur Eddington’s test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity during the May 1919 total eclipse. Nordgren is a wonderful guide to both the science and the sensory thrills.” —Nature

“When the moon clips our view of the sun or our own shadow blots out our satellite, we experience it with the benefit of millennia of knowledge. We know years in advance when an eclipse will happen, where on the planet it will be visible and, perhaps most importantly, that the world will not end because of it. Our ancestors were not so well-prepared. Astronomer and physicist Nordgren charts the path our species has taken from terror to scientific understanding, and he’s done it with and clarity.”

… a philosophical, historical and speculative meditation on the roots of scientific thinking and the development of astronomical theory and practice.…. a charming and informative primer. Read more...