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First Light
Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone , he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light , he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbing narrative around a complex scientific subject--in this case the efforts by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California to peer to the farthest edges of space through the Hale Telescope, attempting to solve the riddle of the creation of the universe.
Richard Preston's name became a household word with The Hot Zone , which sold nearly 800,000 copies in hardcover, was on The New York Times's bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles. Preston has become a sought-after commentator on popular science subjects.
For this hardcover reprint of what has been called "the best popular account of astronomy in action," ( Kirkus Reviews ) he has revised the text and written a new introduction.
Richard Preston's name became a household word with The Hot Zone , which sold nearly 800,000 copies in hardcover, was on The New York Times's bestseller list for 42 weeks, and was the subject of countless magazine and newspaper articles. Preston has become a sought-after commentator on popular science subjects.
For this hardcover reprint of what has been called "the best popular account of astronomy in action," ( Kirkus Reviews ) he has revised the text and written a new introduction.
263 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Richard Preston
21Ìýbooks1,353ÌýfollowersRichard Preston is a journalist and nonfiction writer.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 31, 2025
"They are spherical,� he said, “because they are bastards every way I look at them.�
January 29, 2014
The 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California was built in the 1930s and the 1940s and started operating in 1948. By the 1980s parts of it had become ancient; the companies that manufactured them had long since gone out of business. Imagine a programmer working with 50-year-old legacy code, except it isn't code; it's physical. A few slight deformations of the mirror were corrected with springs from fisherman's scales; decades later an engineer saw the springs, wondered what they were doing in the telescope, and removed them: this was a bad idea! The person who actually ran the telescope was a Mexican American farmer's son, a former barber who got himself hired as a menial laborer and rose to become the senior night assistant; he wouldn't let Ph.D.s do things that could damage the machine. By the late 1980s, the light of the telescope was concentrated and fed into a camera with 4 800 by 800 pixel CCDs, which was the state of the art at the time. A third of the device consisted of "surplus parts and rehabilitated garbage" utilized by tinkerer astronomers. Originally the movement of the telescope was controlled by analog mechanical computers; by the 1980s electronic digital computers had taken over, but the old machines were kept oiled and ready in case the newfangled computers crashed.
The astronomers profiled in the book used the gigantic telescope to search for quasars. In the early 1960s astronomers found radio-emitting stars with spectra that made no sense; one astronomer thought that the spectral lines of one such star were those of curium, neptunium and plutonium. Another realized that something redshifted the bejesus out of the spectral lines of ordinary hydrogen. If these things are moving away from us as quickly as the redshift indicates, and are as far from us as Hubble's Law suggests, they must be billions of light-years away, and trillions of times brighter than the Sun. These are no stars. Thus was the study of quasars born. By the 1980s scientists arrived at a consensus that quasars are supermassive black holes that swallow many solar masses' worth of matter each year, converting a significant percentage of this mass to energy and radiating it away. As quasars are the brightest permanently shining objects in the Universe, they are the most distant things we can see and therefore the oldest: the light that arrives at our telescopes was emitted billions of years ago. They bring us closer to the first light in the Universe.
There is also a chapter on a husband-and-wife team of astronomers who were looking for comets and asteroids using a smaller telescope, but it isn't as interesting.
The astronomers profiled in the book used the gigantic telescope to search for quasars. In the early 1960s astronomers found radio-emitting stars with spectra that made no sense; one astronomer thought that the spectral lines of one such star were those of curium, neptunium and plutonium. Another realized that something redshifted the bejesus out of the spectral lines of ordinary hydrogen. If these things are moving away from us as quickly as the redshift indicates, and are as far from us as Hubble's Law suggests, they must be billions of light-years away, and trillions of times brighter than the Sun. These are no stars. Thus was the study of quasars born. By the 1980s scientists arrived at a consensus that quasars are supermassive black holes that swallow many solar masses' worth of matter each year, converting a significant percentage of this mass to energy and radiating it away. As quasars are the brightest permanently shining objects in the Universe, they are the most distant things we can see and therefore the oldest: the light that arrives at our telescopes was emitted billions of years ago. They bring us closer to the first light in the Universe.
There is also a chapter on a husband-and-wife team of astronomers who were looking for comets and asteroids using a smaller telescope, but it isn't as interesting.
August 4, 2020
titular sentence:
p53: Three nights before Christmas, 1947, a crowd of astronomers and engineers gathered in the dome for first light.
terms:
p209: I climbed back out and then Juan led the way up a stair that angled upward for three stories through the West Arm of the Hale Telescope,, until we came to a landing with a cabinet standing on it.
Not quite my cup of tea.
p53: Three nights before Christmas, 1947, a crowd of astronomers and engineers gathered in the dome for first light.
terms:
p209: I climbed back out and then Juan led the way up a stair that angled upward for three stories through the West Arm of the Hale Telescope,, until we came to a landing with a cabinet standing on it.
Not quite my cup of tea.
December 19, 2017
While many of the scientific questions posed in this narrative have been answered by now, I still recommend giving it a read. It's an approachable, layman-friendly account of astronomers at the Palomar Observatory using the Hale telescope (first 200" mirror) and what they discovered, and it's engaging from start to finish.
The descriptions of the astronomers huddled together dressed in winter parkas and munching Oreos while they got their first glimpses of red-shifted light (quasars), the oldest light in the universe (that we've been able to see thus far), are priceless. Likewise, the passage dealing with the overzealous cleaning guy who removed the plumbing weights that had been hung on the back of the vast mirror of the telescope, believing them to be garbage, when in fact they'd been deliberately placed to straighten out the focus... great stuff.
It's a funny, warm, deeply human and absorbing account of what at the time was a miraculous scientific leap forward. I don't read a great deal of non-fiction, but I enjoyed the hell out of this one. If this sounds like your cuppa, definitely pick it up.
The descriptions of the astronomers huddled together dressed in winter parkas and munching Oreos while they got their first glimpses of red-shifted light (quasars), the oldest light in the universe (that we've been able to see thus far), are priceless. Likewise, the passage dealing with the overzealous cleaning guy who removed the plumbing weights that had been hung on the back of the vast mirror of the telescope, believing them to be garbage, when in fact they'd been deliberately placed to straighten out the focus... great stuff.
It's a funny, warm, deeply human and absorbing account of what at the time was a miraculous scientific leap forward. I don't read a great deal of non-fiction, but I enjoyed the hell out of this one. If this sounds like your cuppa, definitely pick it up.
September 15, 2007
Richard Preston writes wonderful nonfiction, and his study of Ebola Reston, The Hot Zone, was magnificent. Before The Hot Zone, though, he tackled the Hale telescope and astronomy in First Light. If you liked The Hot Zone or just like reading good books about astronomy, you'd love this one.
NC
NC
December 9, 2009
An enjoyable read from the guy who wrote Hot Zone, which freaked me out and turned me into a little more of a germophobe. Nevertheless, I liked his writing style and liked reading about a more safe, more familiar subject.
January 10, 2024
Enjoyable portraits of Palomar astronomers in the 80s. Easy, fun reading that hits harder after visiting there.
May 26, 2019
“Astronomers refer to the depth of astronomical vision as lookback time. Seeing outward is equivalent to looking backward in time, because the telescope’s mirror is capturing primeval light.�
When I read older books that may be outdated, the first thing I always do is to look up what updates there are. The sense of wonder continues, and this book went somewhat long on gadgets and maintenance, built overall was a good survey of a few astronomical quests and how they are achieved. Did Carolyn Shoemaker achieve what she wanted, to find the most comets ever? Yes, for a while, but then the technology advanced and she was surpassed. There is a newer preface from 1996, any updates since then? Did Maarten Schmidt continue to build and build on the knowledge of quasars? No, they are still an inscrutable mystery, see article.
I think the main sense of wonder that I absorbed was about lookback time; the idea of fossil light, primeval light, antique light. How can you take a picture of fossil light? What is it right now, and why can’t we see it? How vast is this place (the universe, all of space) anyways? It took me a while to thrill to deep time (geological time) and I just can’t get to the same place with lookback/space time yet, but this helped. I think we need more science writers who can translate these things, and the physics of astronomy are pretty complicated and can obscure the big picture view.
Now I have more definition and bulk in my definition of universe, so when I use it metaphorically, it is enriched in a beautiful way. I tried Neil deGrasse Tyson’s astronomy book and couldn’t get into it, but may try again, but sometimes, it is a lay person that can really capture the depth and meaning behind science.
“The sky could be imagined as a palimpsest containing stories written on top of one another going back to the origin of time. A telescope looking outward into lookback time strips layers from the palimpsest; it magnifies and reimages small, faint letters in the underlayers of the manuscript. The sky could also be imagined as a book, bound into chapters that tell a story...To focus quasar light with a mirror is to reimage the past, since the only optical trace of the quasars today is a memory transported in antique light. The region of quasars begins about two billion light-years away from us, or rather, before our time, and where it all ends, or rather, begins, is what Maarten Schmidt was trying to find out.�
“Consider a sun the size of the dot over this i. On that scale the earth would be the size of a one-celled microorganism, located about two inches away from the sun. On that same scale the nearby star Proxima Centauri would be about nine miles away—and the center of the Milky Way would be about fifty thousand miles distant. If something were to happen to the earth, it would not be missed. Man is dispensable. So is the earth.�
When I read older books that may be outdated, the first thing I always do is to look up what updates there are. The sense of wonder continues, and this book went somewhat long on gadgets and maintenance, built overall was a good survey of a few astronomical quests and how they are achieved. Did Carolyn Shoemaker achieve what she wanted, to find the most comets ever? Yes, for a while, but then the technology advanced and she was surpassed. There is a newer preface from 1996, any updates since then? Did Maarten Schmidt continue to build and build on the knowledge of quasars? No, they are still an inscrutable mystery, see article.
I think the main sense of wonder that I absorbed was about lookback time; the idea of fossil light, primeval light, antique light. How can you take a picture of fossil light? What is it right now, and why can’t we see it? How vast is this place (the universe, all of space) anyways? It took me a while to thrill to deep time (geological time) and I just can’t get to the same place with lookback/space time yet, but this helped. I think we need more science writers who can translate these things, and the physics of astronomy are pretty complicated and can obscure the big picture view.
Now I have more definition and bulk in my definition of universe, so when I use it metaphorically, it is enriched in a beautiful way. I tried Neil deGrasse Tyson’s astronomy book and couldn’t get into it, but may try again, but sometimes, it is a lay person that can really capture the depth and meaning behind science.
“The sky could be imagined as a palimpsest containing stories written on top of one another going back to the origin of time. A telescope looking outward into lookback time strips layers from the palimpsest; it magnifies and reimages small, faint letters in the underlayers of the manuscript. The sky could also be imagined as a book, bound into chapters that tell a story...To focus quasar light with a mirror is to reimage the past, since the only optical trace of the quasars today is a memory transported in antique light. The region of quasars begins about two billion light-years away from us, or rather, before our time, and where it all ends, or rather, begins, is what Maarten Schmidt was trying to find out.�
“Consider a sun the size of the dot over this i. On that scale the earth would be the size of a one-celled microorganism, located about two inches away from the sun. On that same scale the nearby star Proxima Centauri would be about nine miles away—and the center of the Milky Way would be about fifty thousand miles distant. If something were to happen to the earth, it would not be missed. Man is dispensable. So is the earth.�
April 24, 2020
Fans of Richard Preston’s best-seller, The Hot Zone, may find this earlier effort a bit on the dull side. Certainly there’s nothing in this chronicle of the life and times of astronomers that on the surface would appear to compare to the alarmist tales of deadly plagues. But to be honest, I kinda prefer this one. The bulk of the work is devoted to describing the lives and backgrounds of the men and women who work on the Hale telescope, searching into lookback time for images of the early universe. Thus Preston presents us not only with some damn fascinating characters but also more than a couple of uninteresting nerds. Underlying it all, however, is the real story: how astronomers use their sometimes imperfect and often homemade tools in a quest to explain the origins of reality. Though the astronomers are the focus, the book also includes just enough interrelationship between science and scientist to keep astronomy buffs interested. For anyone curious about the research process as well as its result, this is a must-read.
November 11, 2019
The opening section of the book starts with describing Juan Carrasco, Senior Night Assistant at the Hale Telescope, turning up for work and ends with the words "because no one in their right mind would let an astronomer loose at the controls of the most powerful telescope on earth". Very intriguing. This is not a book about astronomy, although there is enough provided to give background; rather it is about the people who do astronomy, and the people who provide them with the tools to do the job.
May 12, 2025
An immersive experience of what it was like to "do" astronomy at Palomar. I visited there years ago, and this book brings back those memories.
Preston also does a good job at explaining the science. Yes, it has progressed since then, but it doesn't take away from this experience.
My favorite quote:
"because nobody in their right mind would let an astronomer touch the controls of one of the most powerful telescopes on earth."
I just loved that the Senior Night Assistant was a former barber, and had so much power.
Preston also does a good job at explaining the science. Yes, it has progressed since then, but it doesn't take away from this experience.
My favorite quote:
"because nobody in their right mind would let an astronomer touch the controls of one of the most powerful telescopes on earth."
I just loved that the Senior Night Assistant was a former barber, and had so much power.
December 29, 2018
Another solid product of Richard Preston. This book is not only about the search for quasars and everything astronomical, but also the people behind it. The subject astronomers' personalities and those who they work with shone through in this book. The structure seemed rather odd, with quick shifts on subjects and personnel where I sometimes got lost on who we were looking at and had to double back. Content-wise I'd have given this a straight 5 stars. Thoroughly intriguing novel.
July 23, 2023
Very good book detailing the ins and outs of the lives of working observational astronomers. It gives good insight on the discovery of comets by the Shoemakers, who of course are famous astronomers who were central to the String Of Pearls comets that smashed into Jupiter in the 1990's. This book reminded of The Double Helix from Watson in that it shows us scientists in their day to day challenges and accomplishments. I liked it!
September 19, 2018
I got halfway through this novel...
I thought I was going to read about "The Search for the Edge of the Universe" but it turn out to be a novel about all the interactions of the astronomers. Eating Oreo's, driving to and from the observatory and other pointless interactions. I got halfway through and quit!
I thought I was going to read about "The Search for the Edge of the Universe" but it turn out to be a novel about all the interactions of the astronomers. Eating Oreo's, driving to and from the observatory and other pointless interactions. I got halfway through and quit!
November 8, 2020
Interesting and entertaining science history putting you in touch with some of the brilliant astronomers using the "Big Eye", the 200 inch Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar, to expand our view of the universe during the nineteen-eighties, pioneering some of the first CCD cameras in astronomy.
November 8, 2021
This book was a delightful read about scientists at work. It almost made me want to do research again and to start astronomy as a hobby. I definitely want to read more about astronomy, especially quasars.
September 17, 2020
Outstanding treatment by Mr. Preston on the construction, use and personalities of those who have played a significant role in the Hale Telescope.
December 24, 2021
Brilliantly told.
Great details included in a story format.
Great details included in a story format.
December 16, 2024
Look at the Appendix -- useful as a reference while reading.
There is no Index. I noted pages on the appropriate appendix page.
Most of the guys mentioned built a telescope when they were kids. They "ground the lens" -- how did they do that? I may need to turn to the internet.
p 90
As of this writing, 192 earth-crossing asteroids have been discovered.
per NASA 2024: More than 33,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered and tracked since 1990.
Whew! lots more sightings
If I could understand and remember what I just read, I think I'd have a solid background for understanding space science. I may want/need to read this again in a couple of months.
February 15, 2012
In my opinion, the book The First Light by acclaimed author, Richard Preston is one that is worth the time a person will spend to read it. Though it has a good hooker in the very beginning, the first few pages are tedious to get through, but if one endures those, then the rest of Preston's work in a pleasure to sit with.
If you are someone who is very into astronomy and has a hunger- like passion for what's out there beyond our planet, then you should definitely buy this book. On the cover, they describe it as only an astronomical book, but Richard Preston has not just written "A book about Space," like any other person. He writes in such a way, that you will feel as if you are one of the astronomers whom Preston tracks. He uses really good ways to convey his purposes. There's a lot of dialogue in his writing so the reader can figure out what's going on instead of just having a one- sided view (the author's) and that's one of the things I personally like best because, when I can read what the speakers are exactly saying, I can set my own opinions about that character based on indirect characterization and my views don't get biased from what Preston thinks.
Preston has a lot of description. He describes everything his eyes see. It's good in a way, because you can see clearly what he wants you to, but sometimes, there's a little too much description. So, it goes off- track and branches out into a whole different topic. Sometimes this habit of his can get a tiny bit annoying because, you're reading about one topic and trying to get through the details so you can come to the main idea and see what Preston is trying to convey and suddenly you come to the end of all those adjectives and instead of finding what you expected; you hit something completely different. It's like going through the tunnel to find light on the other side like it was when you entered but finding darkness instead. But, in a similar way, the way he writes his new topic attracts just as much, so it's fine.
If you're looking for information along with something captivating, this is definitely the perfect answer to your search. While this book gives a tremendous amount of information, its not like your average, tedious, nonfiction book assigned by a teacher. It's not filled with all statistics or bulletpoint after bulletpoint of facts that you are sure to forget by the time you turn the last page of the book. As surprising as it may seem, Preston knows how to make nonfiction fun. When he talks about the Hale Telescope, it's not like, "The Hale Telescope was invented by Ellery Hale." It starts with an introduction about Hale himself, and how he was like. Though, Preston is writing about a very iconic person, he doesn't put in all good, and formal facts about him. He describes Hale as lazy, and the type of person who could persuade people to bid his work just by talking. When he says this, it adds a little humor too.
If someone were to ask me to recommend this book to them, I would first say, make sure you can handle about 230 pages of astronomy talk, and if the answer to that question is, "yes," then this is definitely a book you should read before you die.
If you are someone who is very into astronomy and has a hunger- like passion for what's out there beyond our planet, then you should definitely buy this book. On the cover, they describe it as only an astronomical book, but Richard Preston has not just written "A book about Space," like any other person. He writes in such a way, that you will feel as if you are one of the astronomers whom Preston tracks. He uses really good ways to convey his purposes. There's a lot of dialogue in his writing so the reader can figure out what's going on instead of just having a one- sided view (the author's) and that's one of the things I personally like best because, when I can read what the speakers are exactly saying, I can set my own opinions about that character based on indirect characterization and my views don't get biased from what Preston thinks.
Preston has a lot of description. He describes everything his eyes see. It's good in a way, because you can see clearly what he wants you to, but sometimes, there's a little too much description. So, it goes off- track and branches out into a whole different topic. Sometimes this habit of his can get a tiny bit annoying because, you're reading about one topic and trying to get through the details so you can come to the main idea and see what Preston is trying to convey and suddenly you come to the end of all those adjectives and instead of finding what you expected; you hit something completely different. It's like going through the tunnel to find light on the other side like it was when you entered but finding darkness instead. But, in a similar way, the way he writes his new topic attracts just as much, so it's fine.
If you're looking for information along with something captivating, this is definitely the perfect answer to your search. While this book gives a tremendous amount of information, its not like your average, tedious, nonfiction book assigned by a teacher. It's not filled with all statistics or bulletpoint after bulletpoint of facts that you are sure to forget by the time you turn the last page of the book. As surprising as it may seem, Preston knows how to make nonfiction fun. When he talks about the Hale Telescope, it's not like, "The Hale Telescope was invented by Ellery Hale." It starts with an introduction about Hale himself, and how he was like. Though, Preston is writing about a very iconic person, he doesn't put in all good, and formal facts about him. He describes Hale as lazy, and the type of person who could persuade people to bid his work just by talking. When he says this, it adds a little humor too.
If someone were to ask me to recommend this book to them, I would first say, make sure you can handle about 230 pages of astronomy talk, and if the answer to that question is, "yes," then this is definitely a book you should read before you die.
May 10, 2014
A story of wonder, of discovery, of the breadth of the universe and the inventiveness of the human mind, told in the style of . You are there atop the telescope, gazing into the night sky, peering at screens over the shoulders of astronomers, technical wizards, and a night assistant named Juan.
This is a wonderful book. Imaginatively told, meandering through astronomical history and the lives of its movers and shakers, it never loses its humanity or its grip on the truth. The real world is more amazing, more fascinating, more bizarre and inexplicable, than anything ever created by humans. Yet human beings invent ways to discover it, to explain it, to see it newly; we climb ever higher up the tree of knowledge, out on the thin branches we never thought we'd reach. Human beings observe wonder; experience wonder; create wonder.
As the book was written in the late 80's, just before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, I am left burning to know more. What does Maarten Schmidt think of the telescope's career? How are the Shoemakers involved in modern asteroid detection? I'll be looking for the new edition, and hoping there will be another one.
ETA I picked up the new edition and read Preston's forward. Not a word about the many accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope. Still, it's nice to know the Shoemakers got recognized for their work.
This is a wonderful book. Imaginatively told, meandering through astronomical history and the lives of its movers and shakers, it never loses its humanity or its grip on the truth. The real world is more amazing, more fascinating, more bizarre and inexplicable, than anything ever created by humans. Yet human beings invent ways to discover it, to explain it, to see it newly; we climb ever higher up the tree of knowledge, out on the thin branches we never thought we'd reach. Human beings observe wonder; experience wonder; create wonder.
As the book was written in the late 80's, just before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, I am left burning to know more. What does Maarten Schmidt think of the telescope's career? How are the Shoemakers involved in modern asteroid detection? I'll be looking for the new edition, and hoping there will be another one.
ETA I picked up the new edition and read Preston's forward. Not a word about the many accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope. Still, it's nice to know the Shoemakers got recognized for their work.
September 4, 2014
Getting ready for a trip to California for a family reunion, I wondered if there was anything on my Nook that I'd bought but not read yet. Sure enough, this book, apparently added in March, was there. In the interest of packing light for a vacation in which I'll have a fair amount of time for reading (especially on 2 4-hour plane rides), this is coming with me, along with the current book group book (paperback) and another of my current reads (hardcover).
I began this on the plane ride home, but didn't finish it until I'd been home a month. It's uncommon for me to read a nonfiction book like this one, but I was fascinated by the stories about the people these scientists are, not so much by the descriptions of the science they're doing. Most interesting to me are these astronomers who are tinkerers at heart, devising the machines they need from cheap or found materials.
I began this on the plane ride home, but didn't finish it until I'd been home a month. It's uncommon for me to read a nonfiction book like this one, but I was fascinated by the stories about the people these scientists are, not so much by the descriptions of the science they're doing. Most interesting to me are these astronomers who are tinkerers at heart, devising the machines they need from cheap or found materials.
April 4, 2008
's famous first science book is an immensely engaging history of astronomy and one of the world's most amazing telescopes, the Hale at Palomar Mountain in California. Outstanding biographical sketches of the individuals involved in the conception and construction of the telescope are given, as well as astronomers who used it and people who maintained it. Woven into all of this are beautifully lucid astronomy lessons. You can read an on his website. I loved this book so much, I had to go see the telescope myself--it was really cool.
April 23, 2012
I have lost/misplaced/given away this book now, but it was one of the best books on Astronomers and about Astronomy that I have read.
One narration that I still recollect was about how the observatory is a scarce resource, and there is usually only one week in the year that an astronomer, or a group of them, can get that resource for. The rest of the year is spent in preparation. Painstaking preparation. To do all that they want to. To validate their hypothesis. Or to invalidate them. And then nature intervenes. Clouds, rain...all you can do is wait for another year for your next slot.
First Light is a book that I want to read again, if I can get my hands on it!
One narration that I still recollect was about how the observatory is a scarce resource, and there is usually only one week in the year that an astronomer, or a group of them, can get that resource for. The rest of the year is spent in preparation. Painstaking preparation. To do all that they want to. To validate their hypothesis. Or to invalidate them. And then nature intervenes. Clouds, rain...all you can do is wait for another year for your next slot.
First Light is a book that I want to read again, if I can get my hands on it!
April 20, 2014
Read this fifteen years ago-ish , The best book about science in action ever written(or that I`ve ever read) and one of the most enjoyable reads ever .It is a journalistic account that reads like an adventure story made up of an Arabian nights-like compendium of quirky twentieth century lives.Like the one armed optician who hand-polished a lense for the first hale telescope on a diet of whisky and cigars.I recently picked it up to check some facts in it and found much to my delight that it is as good as I remember.A book you will wish you were always reading for the first time.
May 7, 2015
For someone like me who has a vague understanding of the science of astronomy, this was an intriguing peak into the lives and infrastructure of astronomical science as well as the mysteries and majesty of the universe. In dealing with this complex subject, Preston did an excellent job of weaving a story out of both the quest for quasars at the edge of the known universe, the telescopes at the Palomar Observatory and near earth objects from comets to meteors. I learned a lot and gained a lot of awe.
June 22, 2014
I found myself sad to see the end of the book, though, at times, while reading it, I was not always impressed with the writing. I think the story it tells is first rate; the writing is not always of the same caliber. The science is a bit dated now since it was written before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope; but it's still well worth reading.
August 16, 2008
Another fun read by Richard Preston. My goal is to read everything he's written. A bunch of star geeks dukin' it out with the universe. The workings of the Hale Telescope- I capitalize here because it is a main character- are almost as exciting as the explanations of quasars and quarks.
May 19, 2015
While not as compelling as The Hot Zone, it was really interesting. The structure kind of meanders, but it meanders WITH the material, which is absolutely fascinating. At times it was downright mind blowing. Props to Preston for making some seriously freaky science pretty accessible.
May 9, 2016
Good example of immersion journalism where Preston picks up the fine details of his subject's lives by nearly moving in with them. Makes a story easy to read, particularly science. A spoonful of sugar.
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