Red-hot reading that’s out of this world

Have you been following the hottest story of 2004 so far?

No, it’s not Britney Spears’ ill-fated nuptials. It’s the images

of Mars coming from NASA’s Spirit rover.

Our obsession with the red planet has reached new heights this

year as never-before-seen pictures of Mars and a stream of incoming

data continue to dominate the news. Mars has long captured the

public’s imagination in movies, books and scientific research.

You can learn even more about Mars at the Newport Beach libraries,

where you’ll find books, videos, DVDs, and print and online magazine

articles to satisfy your craving for pictures, facts, discoveries and

stories about our neighbor planet.

A good place to start is Paul Raeburn’s “Uncovering the Secrets of

the Red Planet: Mars.” This coffee table-sized book, published by

National Geographic, has more than 125 spectacular full-color

photographs of Mars, including a double gatefold panoramic image in

3-D.

William Sheehan and Stephen James O’Meara, contributing editors to

Sky & Telescope magazine, trace the history of our fascination with

Mars in their book “Mars: The Lure of the Red Planet.” This title

provides a comprehensive overview of the beliefs held about Mars

dating back to the earliest Australian Aborigines. However, the

majority of this text is devoted to scientific research, from Ptolemy

to 20th-century space explorations.

Another meticulously researched, authoritative work on the red

planet is “Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a

World” by acclaimed science writer Oliver Morton. His detailed

account of the history and geology of our nearest neighbor covers a

broad range of topics, including 19th-century visionaries, spy

satellite pioneers, science fiction writers, arctic explorers and the

landscape of Mars.

Planetary expert Patrick Moore’s book “Patrick Moore on Mars” also

provides an abundance of information on the fourth rock from the sun.

This well-illustrated text tells the full story of Mars from early

myths to the present day. Moore discusses historical telescopic

observations of Mars, Russian and American space efforts to explore

the red planet, and the possibility of manned exploration on Mars in

the not-too-distant future.

If you would prefer to glean information about Mars and space

exploration while seated in front of your television, you may want to

check out the DVD or video “Destiny in Space,” produced by IMAX Space

Technology Inc. Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, this film invites the

viewer to travel alongside astronauts as they deploy and repair the

Hubble Space Telescope and soar above the remarkable contours of Mars

and Venus.

Some of the most up-to-date information on Mars and space

exploration can be found in magazine databases Scientific American

and ProQuest. With your Newport Beach library card, you can get

articles from the Scientific American and ProQuest databases by

either coming into one of our libraries or logging onto our website

at https://www.newportbeachl ibrary.org.

The Scientific American database has all of the magazine’s

articles, including the full-color graphics, dating back 10 years.

ProQuest, which indexes more than 1,000 periodicals, is another

excellent resource for finding current information on virtually any

topic. Yes, even on Britney Spears.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by TAMARA HENN. All titles may be

reserved from home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

https://www.newport beachlibrary.org. For more information, please

contact the Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.