Table Of ContentISBN 978-1-84353-800-4
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The Rough Guide to The Universe Rough Guides Reference
Editing: Joe Staines & Matthew Milton Director: Andrew Lockett
Cartography: Maxine Repath, Ed Wright & Editors: Peter Buckley,
Katie Lloyd-Jones Tracy Hopkins, Sean Mahoney,
Illustration: Peter Buckley Matthew Milton,
Proofreading:Diane Margolis Joe Staines, Ruth Tidball
Production: Rebecca Short
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This second edition published April 2008 by
Rough Guides Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
345 Hudson St, 4th Floor, New York 10014, USA
Email: [email protected]
Distributed by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
Penguin Putnam, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2YE
Penguin Group (New Zealand), Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, NZ
Printed in Italy by LegoPrint S.p.A
Typeset in DIN, Myriad and Minion
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all
information in The Rough Guide to The Universe; however, they can accept no responsibility
for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from
the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
© John Scalzi, 2003, 2008
416 pages; includes index
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 13: 9-781-84353-800-4
ISBN 10: 1-84353-800-8
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Andromeda 238 Cygnus 294 Pavo 362
Antlia 240 Delphinus 296 Pegasus 338
Apus 242 Dorado 298 Perseus 340
Aquarius 244 Draco 300 Phoenix 342
Aquila 246 Equuleus 296 Pictor 344
Ara 248 Eridanus 302 Piscis Austrinus 306
Aries 250 Fornax 302 Pisces 346
Auriga 252 Gemini 304 Puppis 348
Boötes 254 Grus 306 Pyxis 240
Caelum 256 Hercules 308 Reticulum 310
Camelopardalis 258 Horologium 310 Sagitta 352
Cancer 260 Hydra 312 Sagittarius 350
Canes Venatici 262 Hydrus 314 Scorpius 354
Canis Major 264 Indus 316 Sculptor 342
Canis Minor 266 Lacerta 318 Scutum 356
Capricornus 268 Leo Minor 320 Serpens Caput 358
Carina 270 Leo 322 Serpens Cauda 356
Cassiopeia 272 Lepus 324 Sextans 322
Centaurus 274 Libra 326 Taurus 360
Cepheus 276 Lupus 328 Telescopium 362
Cetus 278 Lynx 320 Triangulum 364
Chamaeleon 280 Lyra 330 Triangulum Australe 242
Circinus 282 Mensa 298 Tucana 314
Columba 256 Microscopium 316 Ursa Major 366
Coma Berenices 284 Monoceros 266 Ursa Minor 368
Corona Australis 286 Musca 332 Vela 370
Corona Borealis 288 Norma 328 Virgo 372
Corvus 290 Octans 280 Volans 270
Crater 290 Ophiuchus 334 Vulpecula 352
Crux 292 Orion 336
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“We are made of starstuff”
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Once upon a time, billions of years ago, a star exploded in the endless
night. It exploded at the end of its life cycle, after first imploding as its
core collapsed. When the core could collapse no further, the inward-
falling gas bounced off the core and started back up, causing the star
to explode violently in a blast that outshone its entire galaxy.
Some of this material became part of a nebula which served as a “stellar
nursery”, a place where new stars form from dust and gas. It was here that
our own Sun was born out of the elements torn from the exploding star.
Other parts fell into the disc of dust and gas that formed around the Sun,
from which the Sun’s family – its planets – would later be born. Among
these planets was our own Earth, on which a unique combination of these
star-born elements arose in the form of life: algae, trilobites, early fish and
amphibians, giant dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans.
We are all made from stars, as is everything you’ve ever known. Is it any
wonder, therefore, that from the first moment humans had the idea of
looking up into the night sky, we’ve felt a connection to those far-distant
points of light? One of the aims of The Rough Guide to the Universeis to
get you a little better acquainted with these long-lost “ancestors” of ours.
Knowledge of the universe is expanding – nearly at the same rate as the
universe itself! In terms of astronomy, there has never been a more excit-
ing time to be alive and to take part in its exploration. I hope that this
book captures some of the excitement of the moment, sharing much of
what is known, and suggesting what’s left to discover.
People are often intimidated by science because they assume it is always
complicated. But the universe is not as hard to understand as is often
thought, and there’s a tremendous amount that can be learned about it
without having to drag in obscure astronomer-speak. The Rough Guide to
the Universe is aimed at all those people who have ever looked up into the
night sky and wondered what the heck is going on up there, and how did
it get there in the first place? After all, it’s easy enough to see and enjoy the
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night sky, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to explain what’s behind some of
its main attractions.
As well as giving a general overview of the current state of our under-
standing of the universe, The Rough Guide to the Universeis also a practi-
cal guide for the enthusiastic home astronomer. It covers all the highlights
of the night sky that can be seen using the naked eye, binoculars or home
telescopes. It also provides context, explaining why you see what you see.
To assist observation of the stars, charts are provided for every constel-
lation with information on what you’ll see there, as well as the stories
behind the constellations. This book won’t answer every question or
explore every astronomical mystery, but it covers a lot of ground, and will
enable you to find your way around the darkness of the night sky.
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The main part of the book comprises a section, entitled “The Universe”,
made up of fourteen chapters. These begin with a quick tour through the
life of the entire universe (including how it began and how it might end),
followed by some basic information on what you need to know when
observing the night sky, plus a survey of useful equipment like binoculars
and telescopes. Chapters 3 to 11 concentrate on our own solar system and
how best to view the objects within it.
Each chapter has the same organizational structure – information on
the chapter subject comes first, and then a guide on observing that object
in the night sky (with the exception of the Sun, which for obvious reasons
is observed in the daytime). For example, the chapter about our Moon
begins with the birth of the Moon before describing how it is now, and
what you might experience if you were to walk on its surface yourself. The
second part of the chapter focuses on how to view the Moon, highlighting
the major features that are visible with the naked eye, and with binoculars
or a telescope.
Chapters 12 to 14 cover stars, galaxies and some of the other, stranger,
phenomena that exist in our universe. Little of the really weird material
– such as black holes, dark matter and extra-solar planets – can be seen
through home telescopes, but they are, nevertheless, fascinating to read
about.
Details on how to view stars and galaxies that are observable appear
in the “Star Charts” section of the book which comes next. After a brief
introduction, explaining how to read a star chart, come the charts them-
selves: beginning with two showing all the constellations in the northern
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and southern hemispheres, followed by 68 charts covering every constel-
lation in alphabetical order. For each chart there is accompanying text
providing historical and scientific information, and noting the major
objects that are worth a closer look through binoculars or a telescope.
Finally, the “Resources” section gives tips on how to find astronomy
information both online and off. This includes a short list of books for
further reading as well as a substantial website directory listing informa-
tion on telescopes, planetaria, observatories, space agencies, image galler-
ies and much else besides.
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John Scalzi is the author of three Rough Guide titles: The Rough Guide
to the Universe (you’re reading it now),The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies
and The Rough Guide to Money Online. He’s also an award-winning sci-
ence fiction novelist, whose books include Old Man’s War,The Android’s
Dream and Zoe’s Tale. He lives in rural Ohio, USA, where he can look up
and see the Milky Way any night of the year without cloud cover. Having
grown up in Los Angeles, with all its night-time light pollution, he thinks
that’s pretty cool.
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This book is dedicated to Kristine and Athena Scalzi with all the love in the world,
in the stars, and beyond.
God is said to have created the universe in a week (plus breaks); it took me fifff-
teen months to finish this one small book. Indeed, I might still be writing it were
it not for the support, help and inspiration I received from friends, editors and
others. So I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the following people
and offer them my thanks.
First, to Robert Shepard, an excellent agent and friend who always checked in
to make sure I wasn’t getting lost in the cosmos. Every writer should have an
agent like him, and I’m sorry for those who don’t. At Rough Guides my editor
Joe Staines did yeoman’s work letting me know when I was going over people’s
heads; he’s the man to thank for the consistently accessible tone. Also many
thanks to Helen Prior for the book’s clear design and layout, and to Maxine
Repath and the cartography department, in particular Katie Lloyd-Jones, for
handling the star charts with such competence and efficiency. Peter Buckley
likewise created several neat illustrations that help to illuminate the text.
Thanks to Barry Gandelman at Space.com, and to all the people who make the
Starry Night software, which was instrumental in creating the star charts in the
book; they made it far easier than it would have been otherwise. Over at NASA,
Bert Ulrich heard me declare several times that he was my hero for the day for
helping to clear up permissions questions I had.
Dr Joan Rohrbach and Dr Matthew Carlson were instrumental in fact-checking
early chapters of the book; any subsequent errors are attributable to me, and
not to them. On the other side of things, my friend Stephanie Lynn read the
book to make sure the concepts and ideas were accessible to everyone. Thanks
also to the members of the Miami Valley Astronomical Society who offered to
give the book a read-through.
I’d also like to acknowledge astronomy’s great communicator, Carl Sagan,
whoseCosmosbook and TV series inspired me as a kid, and whose mission to
popularize science (without dumbing it down) is an ideal that I have aspired to
in my own writing.
Finally, thanks to Kristine Scalzi, my wife, for just about everything. And to my
daughter Athena Scalzi, who asks me to get out my telescope so she can look at
the planets, and who knows Saturn from Jupiter, which is pretty cool consider-
ing she’s not quite four. I’d give you both the entire universe if I could; here’s a
book about the universe instead.
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