ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512150117
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY LARRY SHIELD
Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae.
By Gale E. Christianson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $27.50.
The name Hubble is most commonly known as the name of the astigmatic telescope placed in orbit by the space shuttle. What is not commonly known is that the telescope is named after the astronomer most identified with the promulgation of the big bang theory of the beginning of the universe.
Edwin Hubble spent his life measuring distances between stars and discovering that they are moving away from each other at a constant and steady velocity. His professional life was spent cold and lonely in observatories isolated on mountaintops to avoid the light pollution of encroaching civilization.
This lonely existence is described by Gale Christianson in a biography which suffers from the isolated life of the subject. The politics of telescope building, the politics of scientific publications, the pleasure of fly fishing, and rubbing shoulders with Charlie Chaplin just don't offer enough fire to keep interesting this biography of a true pillar of science.
The Great Comet Crash.
By Johns R. Spencer and Jacqueline Mitton, Editors. Cambridge University Press. $24.95.
On July 16, 1994, a comet designated as Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter. This impact was anticipated and studied by astronomers around the world.
"The Great Comet Crash" is a compilation of essays covering the incident from first discovery to impact as well as musings about what would happen if a comet hit Earth. Throughout the book are photographs and drawings showing the devastation wreaked on the largest planet in our solar system.
Without the prose, the photos would be reason enough to own the book, but to only look at the pictures would be a disservice.
Night: Night Life, Night Language, Sleep and Dreams.
By A. Alvarez. Norton. $23.
In a manner reminiscent of Diane Ackerman's "A Natural History of the Senses," A. Alvarez (no explanation of A.) explores how darkness exerts an influence on human emotion.
Melding visits to a sleep lab with a tour of night duty alongside New York City police and an analysis of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's obsession with "night horrors," Alvarez weaves a seductive study of how man copes with that unknown visited daily - time without light.
Larry Shield trains dog and horses in Franklin County.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Halley's Comet in 1910by CNB