The Hubble Space Telescope: Our Eye on the Universe

by Terence Dickinson, Tracy C. Read

Overview

A beautifully illustrated, accessible beginner's guide to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Acclaimed astronomer Terence Dickinson and his longtime editor Tracy C. Read team up to explore the starry treasures in our galaxy and beyond as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Since Galileo pointed his telescope at the starry night in 1609 and discovered that the hazy patch above us was not a cloud but a "river" of uncountable stars — the Milky Way, our home galaxy — humans have been improving on ways to understand the cosmos. We've devised ever more powerful telescopes and placed them on mountaintops, far from the bright lights of cities. But the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 was the first time we'd sent a telescope into space, beyond the distorting effects caused by looking through the Earth's atmosphere.

Orbiting roughly 350 miles above Earth and circling the planet more than 5,000 times a year, Hubble has made over 1.3 million observations, revealing the vast scope of the expanding universe beyond our solar system. In The Hubble Space Telescope: Our Eye on the Universe, young readers find out how this groundbreaking telescope gathers imagery and transmits it to Earth. This book shares what Hubble has taught us about the universe and explains its top discoveries. Chapters filled with the telescope's latest photography offer insight into:

stormy weather on our solar system's planets and moons and dramatic collisions in space

star clusters, nebulas and the Milky Way Galaxy

the Milky Way's galaxy neighbors

massive black holes and dark matter

planets beyond our solar system

star nurseries and glimpses of distant galaxies in deep space.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228102175
Publisher:	Firefly Books, Limited
Publication date:	09/27/2019
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	10 - 15 Years

About the Author

Terence Dickinson, one of Canada's best-loved amateur-astronomy writers, gained renown for unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos. His down-to-earth style made him the award-winning best-selling author of 14 astronomy books, including NightWatch, The Backyard Astronomer's Guide, The Universe and Beyond and Hubble's Universe. The cofounder and former editor of SkyNews, Canada's national astronomy magazine, Dickinson was a recipient of the Order of Canada and two honorary doctorates.

Tracy C. Read is a writer who lives in Kingston, Ontario, and is the author of the children's natural history series Exploring the World of....

Editorial Reviews

An illustrated, accessible beginner's guide to the Hubble Space Telescope, this book shares what Hubble has taught us about the universe and explains its top discoveries. Young readers find out how this ground-breaking telescope gathers imagery and transmits it to Earth. Explore the starry treasures in our galaxy and beyond as revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books for Kids and Teens 2020

10/01/2019

Gr 6–8—In a photograph, galaxy UDFj-39546284 looks like a faint dot of starlight in a dark field, surrounded by much larger and brighter bodies. It's believed to be the oldest and most distant star cluster ever observed from Earth, a galaxy formed just half a billion years after the big bang. Many of the images in Dickinson and Read's lushly illustrated volume are particularly striking, resembling abstract paintings or backgrounds from science fiction book covers. For example, a mosaic photo of the Eagle Nebula, known as the Pillars of Creation, shows "three giant columns of cold gas…bathed in the scorching ultraviolet light from a cluster of young massive stars embedded in the nebula." Each of the five chapters opens with four paragraphs of introductory narrative text followed by several pages of photographs taken from the telescope, most with detailed captions. Some photos are assembled from as many as 400 Hubble images. Sidebar texts explore related topics such as the significance of the telescope's namesake, early 20th-century astronomer Edwin Hubble, or a brief explanation of the top six scientific discoveries made with the telescope. However, no overarching narrative unites the caption texts, and at times they can seem disjointed. The book includes an index and one page of photo credits, but no source notes or bibliography. VERDICT The lack of sourcing and consistent context makes this a weak choice for research, but it could be a great addition for middle school libraries to spark interest in astronomy.—Bob Hassett, Luther Jackson Middle School, Falls Church, VA

School Library Journal

If you're hoping to kindle astronomical interest in a young person this holiday season, nothing succeeds like a collection of impressive images. Few can resist the visual splendour of the universe, but to sustain that spark, the photos need to be matched with lively, engaging and factual descriptions... Page after page is packed with stunning Hubble shots and accessible writing. Considering the book's modest price, it can serve as a nifty stocking stuffer for the curious youngster in your life

Sky New Magazine - Gary Seronik

This recommended book is a must for school and classroom science libraries.

Resource Links - Helen Mason

An attractive work with copious colour images... A second read of The Hubble Space Telescope reinforced the information value of the book. The price is fair for a book of this size and with so many colour images. Recommended.

Canadian Review of Materials - Val Ken Len

This book is packed full of information about the Hubble Space Telescope, our solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and a brief glimpse of deep space. Every page is illustrated with stunning photos taken from the Hubble Telescope... This book is well written, tightly organized, and well designed.

Canadian Teacher Magazine - Brenda Boreham

2019-06-16
A close look at the Hubble and a selection of the very distant astronomical wonders it has brought into view.

Placed into orbit in 1990, the HST "boldly ushered us into a new golden age of astronomy," Dickinson and Read write, "and introduced us to a universe that is awesome, chaotic and mysterious." The ensuing photo album makes good on these claims, beginning with lambent portraits of local planets and moons—often in revealing sequences to show changes over time—and going on to literally spectacular views of immense star clusters and nurseries, turbulent nebulas, swarms of galaxies clustered or colliding, and, in a final section titled "To Infinity and Beyond," a panorama of the deepest star field yet observed. Most are Hubble photos, but the authors freely acknowledge that some, such as the recent (2019) first direct glimpse of a black hole, are not, or not entirely. Though most of the images come with descriptive notes, at one point the narrative is reduced to no more than identifying labels, which encourages lingering over the visual majesty on display. In an opening section, separate enough from the rest to have its own glossary, the authors describe each of the Hubble's instruments and introduce other space telescopes. Though in essence a boiled-down version of Dickinson's more-expansive Hubble's Universe (second ed. 2017), there is more than enough here to sate young sky watchers with an appetite for jaw-dropping space photography.

"To Infinity and Beyond," indeed. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews