Posted on Friday, October 04, 2013
Our Explosive Sun by Pal Brekke
Finished reading on September 25, 2013
Rating 8/10
"Our Explosive Sun" is a well-guided tour to the star that usually doesn't get much attention.
A lot of times there are these certain topics or objects that might seem utterly boring to an amateur astronomer. The Sun can easily happen to be one of them. It isn't easy to make it sound interesting, but this book has done it with the combination of wonderful images and concise but interesting text.
You'll find out about how the Sun looks like in different wavelengths and what features can be seen at those wavelengths. For example one can see the sun spots in visible light even with the naked eye well enough when the Sun is low near the horizon behind a slight haze. But for seeing such things as filaments or protuberances one has to use a filter, a hydrogen alpha filter works nice for that. However if you'd want to see the coronal holes you have to observe it in a totally different way...
But the book is not just about the ways how you can observe it using a telescope, it also tells you about all kinds of phenomena that are associated to solar activity. For example geomagnetic storms that can disrupt electrical systems and make homing pigeons lose their way because they use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, and also auroras that one can see far up north or south and appear when there are charged particles from the Sun entering Earth's atmosphere.
This book would be a good introduction to our nearest star both for adults and children, as it has a lot of illustrations and texts that aren't too difficult to understand, but they're interesting enough for an adult as well, just as long as you don't know everything about the Sun, as it isn't really an in-depth view.
If you want to find out more about the Sun, then this is the book to turn to!
Finished reading on September 25, 2013
Rating 8/10
"Our Explosive Sun" is a well-guided tour to the star that usually doesn't get much attention.
A lot of times there are these certain topics or objects that might seem utterly boring to an amateur astronomer. The Sun can easily happen to be one of them. It isn't easy to make it sound interesting, but this book has done it with the combination of wonderful images and concise but interesting text.
You'll find out about how the Sun looks like in different wavelengths and what features can be seen at those wavelengths. For example one can see the sun spots in visible light even with the naked eye well enough when the Sun is low near the horizon behind a slight haze. But for seeing such things as filaments or protuberances one has to use a filter, a hydrogen alpha filter works nice for that. However if you'd want to see the coronal holes you have to observe it in a totally different way...
But the book is not just about the ways how you can observe it using a telescope, it also tells you about all kinds of phenomena that are associated to solar activity. For example geomagnetic storms that can disrupt electrical systems and make homing pigeons lose their way because they use the Earth's magnetic field for navigation, and also auroras that one can see far up north or south and appear when there are charged particles from the Sun entering Earth's atmosphere.
This book would be a good introduction to our nearest star both for adults and children, as it has a lot of illustrations and texts that aren't too difficult to understand, but they're interesting enough for an adult as well, just as long as you don't know everything about the Sun, as it isn't really an in-depth view.
If you want to find out more about the Sun, then this is the book to turn to!
Labels: book review, Our Explosive Sun, Pal Brekke, sun