Universe in Focus: the Story of the Hubble Telescope

by Stuart Clark

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken thousands of images of the cosmos. Many are the most detailed visual records of celestial bodies that scientists have ever seen, others are of objects never seen before, and some are also breathtakingly beautiful.

Universe in Focus uses over 150 of these remarkable images to reveal the evolving history of the planets, stars, galaxies and the universe itself. Despite its early troubled history, Hubble has revealed to us objects in space that could only be imagined before now. Insight into black holes, active galaxies and collapsing stars have been captured in revolutionary images, which are reproduced here in splendid color, and interpreted for the non-expert by a professional astronomer.

The book is organized into six chapters, moving from the workings of the telescope itself progressively outward to the Solar System, the stars, the galaxies, and the universe, including the most wide-ranging views into deep space. The final chapter, the Factfile, provides key reference information to expand and supplement the main content.

Genres: Science

127 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

Journalist, award-winning author and broadcaster, Stuart Clark is a brilliant storyteller. Fiction or non-fiction, his work is written with conviction and with passion. In recent years, he has devoted his career to presenting the complex and dynamic world of astronomy to the general public.

His latest work is the pioneering trilogy The Sky's Dark Labyrinth. In the way that CJ Sansom's hugely successful Shardlake series marries crime writing with popular history, so The Sky's Dark Labyrinth trilogy blends gripping, original historical fiction with popular science.

Stuart holds a first-class honours degree and a phd in astrophysics. A Visiting Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, he is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a former Vice Chair of the Association of British Science Writers. But it was his first work of narrative nonfiction, The Sun Kings, that established him as a popular science writer par excellence. Without fail the reviews, ranging from Nature to Bookslut.com, remarked on his exceptional storytelling ability and sheer verve of his writing. It was shortlisted by the Royal Society for their 2008 general science book prize, it won Italy's 2009 Montselice Prize for best scientific translation, and the Association of American Publishers 2007 Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for Excellence in the Cosmology and Astronomy category.

Stuart is a regular contributor to national and international radio and television programmes and dvd productions. He frequently lectures throughout the UK and, increasingly, throughout the world.

Reviews

[Rahul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I was only 12 when I got this book in my hands, and retrospectively, the way its images affected me as a child, I give this book a 4.
It has some really stunning images, great for kids, to get them all interested in the universe at large. It was for me, at least.