Old Book Reviews, Part Two: Blind Wachers of the Sky

This is the second of old book reviews I found in my archives.  First published in the SEPA Journal, (Southeastern Planetarium Association) it was written for an audience already familiar with the history of astronomy.  Still, that shouldn't take away from the original message of the piece, which is to READ THIS BOOK!  :)

Blind Watchers of the Sky -- The People and Ideas that Shaped Our View of the
Universe.
by Rocky Kolb
©1996
ISBN # 0-201-15496-X Pbk
Helix Books
$14.00
338 pages

 

Buy it at Amazon

Before I begin my review of this book, I feel I should -in the spirit of full disclosure-
admit that I have a strong bias in favor of the chosen subject matter and writing style.
There, now that that’s out of the way, the rest of what I have to say boils down to this:
READ THIS BOOK!  It really is a treasure, and should be the source of a great deal of
inspiration to all of us.

Like several other books in the last decade (The God Particle and Coming of Age in the
Milky Way come to mind) Mr. Kolb’s book takes us on a historical journey of science. In
some ways, the scope of that journey is smaller and more focused than is presented in the
other two books, but is also more warm and intimate, more human.

Blind Watchers of the Sky is divided into three parts:  The Solar System, The Galaxy, and
The Universe. Roughly chronological, the story of how we as a civilization have
expanded our understanding of the scope and workings of our universe starts with Tycho
Brahe and works up to today (or at least 1996).

If forced to pick, I would have to say that part one was my favorite. The four chapters
here concentrate on Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, respectively. Most of us are at
least somewhat familiar with the lives of these legends, but Mr. Kolb breathes life into
them as people. His relaxed writing style really soars here.  Especially nice is Mr. Kolb’s
tendency to put historical events in the context of modern times. (Imagine Tycho Brahe
having to deal with a congressional committee!)

Part two relates how we began to come to terms with the size of our surroundings, from
the Earth and the solar system, all the way to the farthest galaxies. (hint:  we know how
big the universe is because of a hole in the ground in Aswan.) It also has one of the best
recountings of the Shapley/Curtis debates on the nature of the spiral nebulae.

Part three takes us into the realm of the expanding universe. (“The expansion of the
universe is an expansion of space, not an expansion of galaxies into space” is now my
new mantra whenever my mind boggles.) Hubble, Einstein, Penzias, Wilson, and others
are covered here.  Like every other character in his narrative, Mr. Kolb truly fleshes them
out, makes them real.

Blind Watchers is intended for the lay reader, but should be fascinating to even the most
technical among us. The stories related within it’s pages are our stories, our common
heritage in the world of astronomy. It is a pleasant look back at the past, to see how far
we have come. Only with that understanding, can we appreciate how far we have yet to
go.