Lisa Harvey-Smith has been looking up at the night skies all her life. She loves it so much she studied the galaxies and is now a professor and an astrophysicist.
You can live in either hemisphere to read her new book. Near the start she encourages readers to visit stellarium-web.org. So I did. It is fabulous, as it shows you what you can see in the night sky where you live. There is also a great app you can download as well. So I did! I learned that it’s Venus I can see as I walk home at night. Throughout the book Lisa recommends other safe and trustworthy websites to look up and apps to download to help guide us. This very much adds to the value of the book.
Lisa takes us right from the beginning of our stargazing adventure, from setting ourselves up to view the sky, to a tour of the galaxy, to discovering and learning about planets and celestial objects. We learn the moon is not made of cheese, but a light-grey powdery rock dust called regolith, which reflects light. That’s why our moon looks so bright in the night sky.
We’re encouraged to start with binoculars rather than a telescope. Did you know you can see some asteroids through binoculars? We learn how to spot satellites and all about the hidden treasures above, including space clouds, star clusters and supernovas.
Universal Guide to the Night Sky is a terrific book. Compact in nature, but really brimming with information to fill young minds and encourage them to investigate the world above us.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens
Age Guide 6+
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