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The Sky Atlas
The Greatest Maps, Myths and Discoveries of the Universe
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Format: Hardback
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A visual history of how mankind has studied the sky throughout history, featuring some of the most stunning images ever created. RELIST
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Description
Beautiful ... endless, brilliant, unforgettable stories' Cerys Matthews, BBC Radio 6*
Combining myth and science, this breathtaking book [is] packed with stunning images' Daily Mail
After the enormous international success of The Phantom Atlas and The Golden Atlas, Edward Brooke-Hitching's brilliant book unveils some of the most beautiful maps and charts ever created during mankind's quest to map the skies above us.
This richly illustrated treasury showcases the finest examples of celestial cartography - a glorious genre of map-making often overlooked by modern map books - as well as medieval manuscripts, masterpiece paintings, ancient star catalogues, antique instruments and other appealing curiosities.
This is the sky as it has never been presented before: the realm of stars and planets, but also of gods, devils, weather wizards, flying sailors, medieval aliens, mythological animals, and rampaging spirits. The reader is taken on a tour of star-obsessed cultures around the world, learning about Tibetan sky burials, star-covered Inuit dancing coats, Mongolian astral prophets and Sir William Herschel's 1781 discovery of Uranus, the first planet to be found since antiquity. Even stranger are the forgotten stories from European history, like the English belief of the Middle Ages in ships that sailed a sea above the clouds, 16th-century German UFO sightings and the Edwardian aristocrat who mistakenly mapped alien-made canals on the surface of Mars.
As the intricacies of our universe are today being revealed with unprecedented clarity, there has never been a better time for a highly readable book as beautiful as the night sky to contextualise the scale of these achievements for the general reader.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Sky Atlas by Edward Brooke-Hitching is celebrated for its stunning collection of cosmic maps and artefacts that explore historical conceptions of the heavens. Reviewers praise its poetic and beautifully illustrated content, highlighting its blend of ancient mythology and advances in astronomy, making it a visual and intellectual delight.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781471178931
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 17 October 2019
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Illustration: Full Colour Throughout
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 189.0mm
Height: 246.0mm
Weight: 700g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Edward Brooke-Hitching is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling books The Phantom Atlas (2016), The Golden Atlas (2018), The Sky Atlas (2019), The Madman's Library (2020) and The Devil's Atlas (2021), all of which have been translated into numerous languages; he is also the author of Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling and Other Forgotten Sports (2015). He is a writer for the BBC series QI. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an incurable cartophile, he lives surrounded by dusty heaps of old maps and books in Berkshire.
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