Astronomy: The Heavenly Challenge

by Jack Arnold

As optics improved, man began to see the solar system. Tycho Brahe in Denmark, Nicolaus Copernicus of Poland, Johannes Kepler of Germany, and Italy's Galileo Galilei all began to see a new relationship between the world and the stars. Their questions, and their non-religious answers, toppled the idea that man?and the Church?are at the center of the universe. The Science and Discovery series recreates history's four-thousand-year journey of scientific progress. Science has often challenged and upset conventional wisdom. This is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers, experiments and theories, change and progress. Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein all make appearances.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Audiobook, History

Audio CD

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Pam]

Nonfiction is not a genre I read enough. I am completing a library bingo challenge and looked for an audio book that interested me. This book gave me facts, theories, and the historical backgrounds of the astronomical discoveries. I learned a lot about the struggles of scientists in astronomy, as their theories conflicted with church doctrine at the time. I have retained a few important facts and concepts, so I am more knowledgeable about astronomy than when I started.

[Alex Shrugged]

This is a nice clean summary of the history of Astronomy from Ptolemy to Galileo. They simplified it considerably, but didn't make any mistakes. I think they gave the wrong impression of Galileo at times. He was an irritable man, did not suffer fools gladly no matter who you were and knew the ins-and-outs of the Vatican. In essense his "punishment" was to stay at "Club Fed". I don't believe he was in any serious danger.

This audiobook is less than 3 hours which I think was restricted to this length to accommodate the cassette tapes they originally appeared on.

I'd listen to this audiobook again.

[Sigo Paolini]

This is neither an astronomy, i.e. what's up in the sky, nor a history of the science, but a history of the astronomers and their studies and how that changed people's perception of the field. It starts appropriately enough with Hyparchus and his arguments with Plato and Aristotle and continues on with Ptolemy and then the great Renaissance thinkers of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho Brahe. I think it was well-produced and the late Edwin Newman presented things in a balanced light. I was surprised I really enjoyed listening to it.

[Mykey]

This book is good for anyone who is interested in the history of Astronomy. The most shocking part of the book for me was when I learned that in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the calendar... the date went from October 4th to October 15th... there was no October 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, or 14th in 1582... It wasn't until about 1920 that all major cultures used the same calendar (AKA: The Gregorian Calendar, named after Pope Gregory XIII).

[Valerie R]

Expected more about astronomy itself, not the author's unhappiness about Christianity and The Roman Catholic Church. "Before there was science, there was superstition." Tells me all I need to know about Jack Arnold's bias.

[Bert]

This is a wonderful history of astronomy. It also does an excellent job of explaining why the church was threatened by this new science. The narrator was engaging and things flowed well.

I listened using Chirpbooks.com.

[Cindy B.]

Interesting information … non- even anti- religion. It does explain WHY the church felt threatened. “Ignorance is bliss to those who would live in hell.” (The Holy Bible )…

[Heather Denkmire]

The use of actors for narrating longer quotes was annoying when I first started listening to these books, but I now find it charming.

This was a review of the basic history of moder day astronomy, put together well so I didn't mind the loads of information that was stuff I already knew. It may be my mood, but I found this particularly successful in bringing together a long story into this short burst of information.

[Gideon Burton]

I appreciate a good overview of a topic, and the effort with this audiobook was to semi-dramatize the story of Astronomy by having actors voice the direct quotations of people like Galileo. However, the writing was quite stilted, and it felt like a patchwork piece assembled factory style as part of the Science & Discovery series.

[Adam Miller]

An informative overview of astronomy's early beginnings, with a focus on Galileo, Copernicus, and Brahe, et al. A short audio book that uses multiple voice actors to convey the historical perspective.

[Michaela]

I would have loved if it were about 400 pages more.