Post by Kalvis on Feb 9, 2006 13:00:22 GMT -6
Blind Watchers of the Sky is a 338 page book by Rocky Kolb. It was published in 1996 by Helix Books, an Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. The subtitle is “The People and Ideas that Shaped Our View of the Universe.”
On 12 December 2005 I attended the New Views of the Universe symposium at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. This book’s author Dr. Edward Kolb (who also goes by the nickname of Rocky Kolb) was one of the four panelists. He had a very personable style in responding to questions that evening and was the easiest to understand. That’s what drove me to check out his book from the Chicago Public Library.
The title initially turned me off because I thought that this was going to be about radio astronomy. Luckily, I soon realized that this book was about something else. It describes how our understanding of the cosmos evolved thanks to the work of some of the most interesting and at their time misunderstood astronomers, philosophers, scientists and physicists. This is not a bland history of Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Netwon, Einstein and company. In a very conversational manner Rock Kolb describes the life and times of these great influencers. We get a glimpse of their personalities as well as the times in which lived and worked.
Although not a highly technical it helped me gain a better perspective of some pretty complex ideas. Many helpful pictures and diagrams are included while complex mathematical equations are kept to a bare minimum. I would recommend it almost for this reason alone, but that’s not all. For those of us living in the Chicago area Blind Watchers of the Sky also provides numerous local references which bring the topics very close to home. This includes Fermilab, the Chicago train system, the Univ. of Chicago, Northwestern Univ., Wheaton High School, and Edwin Hubble’s connections to these institutions.
I highly recommend this book for its easy and fascinating reading. I would also recommend attending one of Rocky Kolb’s classes or public lectures.
Kalvis
On 12 December 2005 I attended the New Views of the Universe symposium at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. This book’s author Dr. Edward Kolb (who also goes by the nickname of Rocky Kolb) was one of the four panelists. He had a very personable style in responding to questions that evening and was the easiest to understand. That’s what drove me to check out his book from the Chicago Public Library.
The title initially turned me off because I thought that this was going to be about radio astronomy. Luckily, I soon realized that this book was about something else. It describes how our understanding of the cosmos evolved thanks to the work of some of the most interesting and at their time misunderstood astronomers, philosophers, scientists and physicists. This is not a bland history of Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Netwon, Einstein and company. In a very conversational manner Rock Kolb describes the life and times of these great influencers. We get a glimpse of their personalities as well as the times in which lived and worked.
Although not a highly technical it helped me gain a better perspective of some pretty complex ideas. Many helpful pictures and diagrams are included while complex mathematical equations are kept to a bare minimum. I would recommend it almost for this reason alone, but that’s not all. For those of us living in the Chicago area Blind Watchers of the Sky also provides numerous local references which bring the topics very close to home. This includes Fermilab, the Chicago train system, the Univ. of Chicago, Northwestern Univ., Wheaton High School, and Edwin Hubble’s connections to these institutions.
I highly recommend this book for its easy and fascinating reading. I would also recommend attending one of Rocky Kolb’s classes or public lectures.
Kalvis