List Price: $29.95
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: The Sky Atlas unveils some of the most beautiful maps and charts ever created during humankind'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.

List Price: $54.99
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: Explore the beauty and awe of the heavens through the rich celestial prints and star atlases offered in this third edition book. The author traces the development of celestial cartography from ancient to modern times, describes the relationships between different star maps and atlases, and relates these notions to our changing ideas about humanity's place in the universe. Also covered in this book are more contemporary cosmological ideas, constellation representations, and cartographic advances.

The text is enriched with 226 images (141 in color) from actual, antiquarian celestial books and atlases, each one with an explanation of unique astronomical and cartographic features. This never-before-available hardcover edition includes two new chapters on pictorial style maps and celestial images in art, as well over 50 new images. Additionally, the color plates are now incorporated directly into the text, providing readers with a vibrant, immersive look into the history of star maps.

List Price: $29.99
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating: (UK)

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description:Perfect for stargazers and armchair astronomers of all ages, Constellations is a beautifully illustrated, fascinating guide to all 88 constellations, including an illustrated star map for each. In Constellations, award-winning Astronomy writer Govert Schilling takes us on an unprecedented visual tour of all 88 constellations in our night sky. Much more than just a stargazer's guide, Constellations is complete history of Astronomy as told by Schilling through the lens of each constellation.

The book is organized alphabetically by constellation. Profiles of each constellation include basic information such as size, visibility, and number of stars, as well as information on the discovery and naming of the constellation and associated lore. Beyond details about the constellation itself is information about every astronomical event that took place or discovery made in the vicinity of the constellation. In the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan) we encounter the location of the first confirmed black hole. A stop at Gemini (the Twins) is a chance to say hello to the dwarf planet Pluto, and in Orion (the hunter) we find the location of the first identified gamma-ray burst.

Stunning star maps throughout the book by acclaimed star mapmaker Wil Tirion show us the exact location of every constellation, the details of its structure, as well as its surrounding astronomical neighbors.

List Price: $39.95
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: Since the time of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians, the observation, study and representation of the night sky has been a challenge for humans, who have always found themselves both astonished at the sight of the vault of the sky illuminated by the stars, and eager to gain scientific knowledge and understanding of what they are observing.

This volume, with splendid illustrations of the most famous, rare and impressive star atlases ever realized from the 16th century to the 19th century, will lead you on a journey among the constellations and will introduce you to the progress made by the great astronomers of the past, the more or less fantastic interpretations of celestial phenomena, and the evolution of the knowledge of the universe gained by those who made the study of the cosmos the very purpose of their lives. You will discover how in many cases art and scientific knowledge merged in such an exceptional manner, resulting in star maps that are true masterpieces of human genius that even now, centuries after their creation, transmit the extraordinary meaning and message that lie at the basis of their conception.

List Price: $140.00
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here
More info (Kindle Edition): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: The introduction of the moving sphere as a model for understanding the celestial phenomena caused a great breakthrough in scientific thinking about the structure of the world. It provided the momentum for making celestial globes and mapping the stars. Celestial globes were produced first by Greek astronomers, and soon became greatly appreciated in antiquity as decorative objects (3 antique globes). The design and construction of the globe varied greatly as it passed through the Arabic (10 scientific globes made before 1500) and Medieval European cultures (3 scientific globes made before 1500). It was the starting-point for the design of many maps in antiquity and later in the Middle Ages (33) serving to illustrate books such as Aratus's Phaenomena. In the early fifteenth century scientific celestial maps (5) were constructed in their own right, independent of globes.

In this book all extant celestial maps and globes made before 1500 are described and analysed in detail. This prestigious study will appeal to academic historians of science and astronomy, and art historians alike.

List Price: $149.95
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: This collection of celestial atlases by Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596-1665) brings back to life a masterpiece from the Golden Age of celestial cartography. First published in 1660 in Harmonia Macrocosmica, the complete 29 double-folio maps and dozens of unusual details reproduced here depict the world systems of Claudius Ptolemy, Nicolas Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe, the motions of the sun, the moon, and the planets, and the delineation of the constellations in various views. Cellarius's atlas, superbly embellished with richly decorated borders depicting cherubs, astronomers, and astronomical instruments, features some of the most spectacular illustration in the history of astronomy.

List Price: Variable
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Hardcover): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: Throughout history people have sought ways in which to "map" the heavens, often in the form of very beautiful documents. In this highly illustrated book, the author reveals some of the ways in which the structure of the universe has been conceived, explained and depicted. With examples ranging from the Stone Age to the Space Age -- ancient observatories, the angelic visions of Dante, images from Copernican revolution, the rationalized heavens of Newton and Flamsteed, through to modern deep space technology -- the book offers a challenging exploration of the tension between rigorous scientific knowledge and the continuing search for cause, certainty and harmony in the universe.

List Price: $49.99
Amazon Price: Click Here & Save
Average customer rating:

More info (Paperback): click here
More info (Kindle): click here


Also available at: Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Description: In recent years, there has been increased interest in our Solar System. This has been prompted by the launching of giant orbiting telescopes and space probes, the discovery of new planetary moons and heavenly bodies that orbit the Sun, and the demotion of Pluto as a planet. In one generation, our place in the heavens has been challenged, but this is not unusual. Throughout history, there have been a number of such world views. Initially, Earth was seen as the center of the universe and surrounded by orbiting planets and stars. Then the Sun became the center of the cosmos. Finally, there was no center, just a vast array of galaxies with individual stars, some with their own retinue of planets. This allowed our Solar System to be differentiated from deep-sky objects, but it didn't lose its mystery as more and more remarkable bodies were discovered within its boundaries.

This book tells the exciting story of how we have conceptualized and mapped our Solar System from antiquity to modern times. In addition to the complete text, this story is made more vivid by: