Galaxies: Inside the Universe's Star Cities

by David J. Eicher

Tour the incredible scope of the cosmos as we know it with the editor in chief of Astronomy, featuring jaw-dropping illustrations and full-color photography from the magazine's archives, much of it never before published.

"The natural history of the galaxies is majestic and deserves its own David Attenborough. In David Eicher, it may have just found him."--Richard Dawkins

Journey to the edges of our galaxy and beyond with one of the most widely recognized astronomy experts as your guide. Delve into the history of stargazing and space observation, learn how black holes power galaxies, and understand the classification of the different galaxy types. This illuminating book--with artful illustrations and never-before-seen space photography--will open your mind to the wonders of the universe that await.

Genres: Nonfiction, Astronomy, Science, Space

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 19, 2020

Reviews

[Koen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Galaxies, Inside the Universe’s Star Cities”. Written by David Eicher and published in 2020 by Clarkson Publishers.
Cover design by Mia Johnson.
Cover illustrations by Irene Laschi.
ISBN 978-0-525-57432-6

David Eicher is editor in chief of Astronomy Magazine and a board member of the Starmus Festival.

This book contains the latest information galaxies and black holes up to and including 2020. The pictures of the various galaxies are marvellous and partly made by “backyard astronomers”. For the extended list of photographers, see the Acknowledgments on page 248. For me personally I’m really content that the photos are printed on non-glossy paper. Somehow the light always reflects wrongly on glossy paper.
The illustrations are also very nice, the technique used is small dots and stars to form the illustration.
So, for me 5 stars for the content, 5 stars for the photographs and 5 stars for the illustrations. Thnx Jade for the this very nice Christmas gift.

A brief summary of the contents:
Chapter 1: What are Galaxies?
Chapter 2: Inside the Milky Way Galaxy.
Chapter 3: Nearby Galaxies: The Local Group.
Chapter 4: The Virgo Supercluster.
Chapter 5: Galaxies to the edge of the Universe.
Resources
Photograph Credits
Acknowledgments
Index

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explore the history of stargazing and space observation as you learn the way black holes power galaxies. Learn how to classify galaxies and learn how to view them from your own back yard. Discover how Edwin Hubble’s photographic plates helped unlock one of the universe’s biggest secrets. Explore the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, the Virgo supercluster, and galaxies to the edge of the universe.

This informative narrative, filled with stunning, full-color photographs from the archives of Astronomy magazine, is a feast for the eyes that will open the reader’s mind to the wonders of the universe.

Highly recommended.

[Ron August · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great perspective on the massiveness of our universe and our place in it. Beautiful pictures and descriptions. Nice understandable maps of our "local group" of galaxies and "the Virgo super cluster" and beyond. I see this book as a great reference and coffee table book.

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book of full-color photos of galaxies with just the right level of technical astrophysics content to appeal to a large audience.

[Mary Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

remarkable, beautiful images--before the James Webb telescope was up there

[Scott Kardel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galaxies: Inside the Universe's Star Cities is an update to the 1980 book Galaxies by Timothy Ferris. Ferris' earlier work was a large-format coffee table book printed on glossy paper. Eicher's version is slightly smaller and on non-glossy paper. One difference is that this newer work doesn't show fingerprints (a plus), but the fact that it is smaller means that a good number of the beautiful images of galaxies in the book spread across two pages, making much harder to appreciate the full image.

Eicher's text is good, but I don't recommend reading it straight through as it is a coffee table book. Sometimes it devolves into list of object names and distances. But the pictures are amazing, the prose is good enough to recommend this for someone that wants to learn about our universe.

[Preston Pendergraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is an easy read with lots of pictures.

To me the first for chapters are the best, with the 5th talking about black holes is okay. Most of the photography in it is from large professional observatories. Wish there were more amateur images. But one item that did bother me a bit was that almost every astronomer profiled was male. I was pretty blown away that Andrea Ghez was not mentioned nor Katie Bouman when it came to black holes.

Overall though a decent book that has nice pictures for the coffee table. Got on bargain book price from B&N, so I am satisfied for the price I paid.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2020, 'Galaxies - Inside the Universe's Star Cities' is a short and nicely packaged roundup of our current understanding of the nature of Galaxies, well supported by a seemingly huge number of Hubble images and well as some other illustrations. My knowledge of astronomy is somewhat out of date, so this was quite an eye-opener both in the literal sense and in imparting some of the more up-to-date theories on the subject. Awesome.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reminds me of the people describing in detail how the Garden of Eden looks like. Or Science, the new religion.

[Roberto Rigolin F Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars is a symbolic rating. This book is about billions of galaxies full of stars!

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and visualizations. Space is so big!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A noteworthy edition comprised of beautiful astronomical marvels.

[Jemmie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and gorgeous, who could ask for more.

[Vicky Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice pictures

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming coffee table book with amazing images, illustrations, and some descriptions perfectly targeted at any enthusiast.

[Vorik · Rating 4 out of 5]

informativer Bildband, dessen interessante Textteile die enorme Größe des Alls zumindest erahnen lassen

[Steve Mills. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible learning experience.The cosmos are an unfathomable mystery,and while this book answered some questions,it also raised a galaxy more!A fantastic reading and thinking experience.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent!