Eta Draconis


Book Description

Elora is leaving her hometown for university. Leaving behind friends, family, and safety to follow her dream of studying theatre while she still has the chance. Together, Elora and her older sister, Vivienne, set out by road for the city and the upcoming semester. The relationship between them is fractured and fading, turned upside down by Eta Draconis: the violent meteor shower that has rained across Earth since the beginning of their adolescence. In a land scarred by craters and shockwaves, to travel anywhere is to risk everything. As the showering intensifies and their way forward becomes threatened, the sisters are forced to confront their relationship and recalibrate their hopes for the future. Do they return home or press on in the face of the meteors? Can life ever be normal with the world crashing down all around you? Eta Draconis is an epic story about two resilient sisters who are determined to live their life in a world on the brink of destruction. Winner of the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award, Brendan Ritchie’s Eta Draconis is timely, hopeful and full of suspense. 'Life on earth undergoes a complex change as meteorites begin to rain down from the dying star Eta Draconis. The world does not collapse, but old certainties disappear and a new mood falls over human societies. A road narrative set in Western Australia’s southwest, Eta Draconis follows two sisters as they survive in these complicated times. A poetic and compelling novel for the COVID moment.' — Dorothy Hewett Award judges




Star-Hopping


Book Description

Learn all about the starry skies and ancient myths through the star-hopping technique.




Universe


Book Description

Marvel at the wonders of the universe, from stars and planets to black holes and nebulae, in this exploration of our solar system and beyond. Universe opens with a look at astronomy and the history of the Universe, using 3D artworks to provide a comprehensive grounding in the fundamental concepts of astronomy, including the basic techniques of practical astronomy. The core of the book is a tour of the cosmos covering the Solar System, the Milky Way, and galaxies beyond our own. Explanatory pages introduce different celestial phenomena, such as galaxies, and are followed by catalogs that profile the most interesting and important examples. A comprehensive star atlas completes the picture, with entries on each of the 88 constellations and a monthly sky guide showing the night sky as it appears throughout the year as viewed from both the northern and southern hemispheres.










The Midnight Sky


Book Description




Patrick Moore’s Observer’s Year: 366 Nights of the Universe


Book Description

Observers no longer need to wonder what they will turn their attention to each night of the year with this updated text of a beloved favorite from Sir Partick Moore. His night-by-night account of the stars is the best possible guide an observer could ask for, and now includes the latest data for the years 2015-2020, preserving and extending Sir Patrick Moore's legacy. This new edition of his classic text makes it easy to see why Sir Patrick Moore was such a helpful guide to generations of budding astronomers, professional and amateur alike. For every night of the year Patrick gives the reader details of interesting objects that can be seen from Earth. It is a book for people with a wide interest in practical astronomy, those who may not have specialized in a specific area of astronomy and wish to expand their knowledge in all areas. Moore updated his book in a second edition in 2005, giving astronomical events through 2010, but a more current version has been desperately lacking. This third edition includes Sir Patrick’s original text but revises its time-sensitive material and adds all of the points of interest that change from year to year, such as eclipses, occultations, planetary positions, and so on. Sir Patrick Moore left behind an enormous legacy, including the world's longest-running television series with the same original presenter, the BBC's The Sky at Night, and more than 70 written works. His influence on the world of amateur astronomy was phenomen al, and his knowledge and passion led many to take up observing as a life-long hobby. This book, “The Observer’s Year, 366 Nights of the Universe” was, he said, one of his personal favorites. It now features a tribute to Patrick Moore's legacy as well as including what has changed in astronomy since the previous edition ten years ago.




Extrasolar Planets and Their Host Stars


Book Description

This book explores the relations between physical parameters of extrasolar planets and their respective parent stars. Planetary parameters are often directly dependent upon their stellar counterparts. In addition, the star is almost always the only visible component of the system and contains most of the system mass. Consequently, the parent star heavily influences every aspect of planetary physics and astrophysics. Drs. Kaspar von Braun and Tabetha Boyajian use direct methods to characterize exoplanet host starts that minimize the number of assumptions needed to be made in the process. The book provides a background on interferometric techniques for stellar diameter measurements, illustrates the authors' approach on using additional data to fully characterize the stars, provides a comprehensive update on the current state of the field, and examines in detail a number of historically significant and well-studied exoplanetary systems.




When the Dragon Wore the Crown


Book Description

When our ancestors gazed upon the skies thousands of years ago they looked up into the center of Creation and saw a mighty Dragon, a great celestial serpent with wings circling ceaselessly above them, night after night, century after century. When the Dragon Wore the Crown is a ground breaking book that covers a period of over six thousand years, focusing on what astrologers would call the Ages of Gemini, Taurus and Aries and taking us through the period of classical astronomy with the Greeks and Romans (approx. 7000 BC-200 AD). When the Dragon Wore the Crown opens and closes with the Chinese mythological tradition and touches on Sumerian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Hindu, Norse, Native American and even Mayan myths, weaving together many of their celestial serpentine similarities. It focuses primarily on the role of the constellation Draco, the astronomical marker of the North Celestial Pole for literally thousands of years. The importance of this simple astronomical observation helped facilitate the study of the calendar, navigation, farming and social organization. The circuit of the seasons was marked by this cadence with the moving center guarding the position of the zodiacal circle for literally thousands of years. The secret of the circle was hidden in its center. The one had to be determined before the other. If the true center was not accurately observed and determined, the entire circle was off. This is a beautiful and informative book of discovery, following the mythology of various cultures as it evolved into modern astronomy.