BOOK REVIEW: Astronomer’s Computer Companion

by James MacLaren

Astronomer’s Computer Companion

Jeff Foust & Ron Lafon, 1999, No Starch Press, <a href=http://www.nostarch.com/>nostarch.com</a></b>

Well… the universe is a big place, no doubt about that, but the internet ain’t so

damn small either.

Jeff and Ron have attempted to corral the incredible wealth and diversity of

internet sites relating to astronomy and distill it down into some sort of

manageable form that can be shoved between the covers of a book.

They bit off an awful lot, and I’m not sure if it all got properly chewed.

But they get high marks for what they HAVE chewed.

This thing is just LOADED with stuff, from the weather on the planet you’re

trying to peek at some galaxy through, all the way out to the cosmic background

radiation, and no end of stuff in between.

Lotta damn stuff!

Comes with a nifty cd that has a sampler of a whole slew of astronomy-related

programs.

But it’s more of an encyclopedia than a book.

Don’t bother trying to read it through or anything, just leave it on the shelf

and hit the index for whatever you’re curious about and then wade in as deep as

you like.

It gets DEEP.