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Beyond : Visions Of The Interplanetary Probes | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Benson
Category: Book
List Price: $55.00
Buy New: $34.51
You Save: $20.49 (37%)
New (4) Used (10) from $14.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 160093
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5.1
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 11.4 x 1.1
ASIN: B000C4SR0E
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
"These images are a spectacular reaffirmation that we are privileged to live in the greatest age of exploration the world has ever known."-From Arthur C. Clarke's foreword Since the 1960s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been sending unmanned satellites to explore the planets, moons, and sun. These probes have amassed a stunning visual record of other worlds, revealing not one but scores of new frontiers, from rust-red Mars to the ethereal rings of Saturn. Author Michael Benson has spent years compiling and digitally processing the best of these images. In Beyond this "deskbound cosmic pilgrim" (Atlantic Monthly) has pulled together the most spectacular of them into one volume that presents these photographs for the first time as art. The resulting book consists of two parts: the first is a spectacular visual tour of the solar system, with views every bit as compelling as the work of the great landscape photographers on earth; the second is a series of beautifully written essays that explain the story behind these photographs: the history of the probes' journeys, how they work, and why they were built. This book shows us how modern science has revealed the astonishing beauty and mystery of the solar system and its awe-inspiring worlds far beyond any places human beings have ever directly observed.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 good pics October 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
this has a lot of good pictures in it. It is well worth the purchase if you are looking for a reasonable compilation of planetary images. The one problem is that is does not have any of the Cassini-Huygens images of Saturn. This is extremely unfortunate because the book would have benefited greatly by these images. Other than then that it is mostly pictures without a lot of explanation. So if you have a decent knowledge of the planets or you are in the mood to do some internet research on the things that you see, it is a great book.
Beautiful Book May 9, 2007
beautiful coffee table book. not the sort of thing you sit and read, but great to have out when guests come over. fantastic images.
 Breathtaking photos of our Solar System January 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am floored every time I open this book of pictures of our Solar System. The images are so amazing and clear. I sometimes wonder that these are actually our neighboring planets.
The main planets themselves are mind-blowing in and of themselves. Io is perhaps the single most jaw dropping moon - a planet in its own right - and evokes so much imagination. Gallisto is also a fascinating moon with its craters coming to life.
Only two regrets with this book. First, the pictures of the moon were not satisfying at all. They didn't portray the moon in any way that is as beautiful as the rest of the solar system. Instead the pictures focus on close up pictures of its surface, which is interesting as well, yet I would have still liked to see whole far off pictures of the moon. And lastly, one of Saturn's moons is mentioned in passing - Titan - as perhaps the most interesting and fascinating of the solar system, and yet it isn't included. Why? Because they didn't want to detract from Saturn and its rings! Including Titan, if it is as fascinating as they are saying, would only add more to Saturn.
Both are trivial and it doesn't in any way change my view of this fantastic collection of pictures of our Solar System. This is a must for all households. A definite recommend.
5 stars.
Look At the Stars & What Do You See? October 28, 2005
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Have you looked up into the night sky or early morning to see the plethora of stars in their stark beauty. On a clear day, it is a spectacular sight, as on this morning's. Mars is getting closer to the Earth, but that is not the sight you will get if you go out and observe the solar system in all its glory.
Near the outer reaches, the second largest planet hovers like a shimmering star with its rings; Saturn is 250,000 miles wide and formed of minute to boulder-size particles held in the gravitational grip of a rapidly spinning central sphere. Jupiter, the largest, has two moons as discovred by the Galileo probe in its fourteen year mission.
Galileo Galilei made telescopic discoveries of the universe; Johannes Kepler used meticulous mathematical charting of the planets; and NASA's 'Spunik' and 'Ranger' spaceflights of the past four decades shows the beauty of the spheres as they appear "suspended in space like weightless jewels." Venus is out nearest and Mars the other next-door neighbor. The 'Mariner 9' probe showed the vastness of the "grandest canyon in the entire solar system and as wide as the continental United States." Venus is the brightest planet we can see from Earth.
Mercury speed around the Sun every 88 days faster than any other planet. It is forty percent larger and far denser than our Moon. It has an overall magnetic field and an iron core, like Earth. Jupiter and Neptune have also been closely obsrved by NASA's 'Voyager 2.' Jupiter is the largest planet with fourteen moons; no, make that sixty-one, according to the 'Voyager 1' probe.
Once upon a time, some years ago, I gave a tour of the Solar System to a literary group. Being a new member, I had stuck with travel books until I got a firm footing and learned what the others were reviewing. So, I began, "Today I will take you on a tour, but not like one you've ever been on before -- we will soar out into the sky and view the Universe as man knows it today." Much has been discovered since then, as the photographs Michael Benson uses in this book show in detail. He confesses that he retrieved most from NASA's Planetary Photojournal web site. They are "out-of-this-world" in every aspect.
Gorgeous!!! Nothing Comparable. July 11, 2005
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is really a space buff's wet dream. I mean, there is not a single book on the market, anywhere, that has such gorgeous, exquisite and detailed pictures of the planets and moons of our solar system as this book has (made by Voyager, Galileo, Maggelan and the like). You just won't believe your eyes. And the essays of Benson (and those of Arthur C. Clarke and Lawrence Weschler) are also splendid, one by one. Convince yourself and surf to the website of Kinetikon Pictures to behold some of the photographs offered in this book and to read some of the essays (and even more). Robotic planetary photography made into (abstract expressionist and impressioinst) art, that is what Beyond is all about. Buy this hefty beast of a book before it is sold out.
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