Eagle Book of the Universe

Eagle Book of the Universe is, according to the fly sheet, for boys and girls 12-16. Space travel was in its infancy when this book was published, so all astronomy was purely ground based. Many theories which are taken for granted today were not even formed when this was written. Nevertheless, this book is an excellent start for budding astronomers and provides a good historical account of theories current in early 1960.

Original Price : 15s (75p)

Published by : Longacre Press in 1960

Edited by : Walter Shepherd

Dimensions : 21cm x 26.5cm with 192 pages.

Selected highlights:
  • Relativity - Einstein's theory gets an explanation.
  • The Horse's Head Nebula still looks impressive, even in black and white.
  • If the universe followed Ptolemy's model, I think we would all be dizzy!
  • There are plenty of people alive today who still think that the earth is flat. At least that's what it states in Chapter 3.
CONTENTS
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Chapter 1 Early Adventures in Astronomy Page 7
2 How Man Discovered His Own Planet 15
3 The Sun and Its Family 22
4 The Mystery of the Moon 31
5 Mercury, Venus and Mars 40
6 The Great Planets and Pluto 49
7 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 60
8 How it all Started 71
THE MILKY WAY
9 The Universe of Stars 81
10 Clouds of Gas and Dust 93
11 Giants and Dwarfs 103
12 Families of Stars 116
THE UNIVERSE
13 Island Universe 126
14 What Relativity Means 136
15 What is the Universe Like? 148
16 Telescopes 159
17 The Spectroscope 171
18 Measuring the Stars 180
19 Space Probes 187