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.
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