 | By: Michael Benson Binding: Paperback Publisher: Abradale Books ISBN: 0810995468 ISBN-13: 9780810995468 Released: 07 Mar 2008 RRP: Average Rating:  |
I was therefore STUNNED by the number of photographs in "Visions" which I'd never seen before, the sheer quality of each individual image, & the sense of "newness" they alll brought. This book is a marvel! A simply amazing & beautiful collection of space images that will appeal to everyone.
I doubt you'll find a more impressive collection of photographs of our solar system anywhere. Please don't even hesitate to get this book... you won't be disappointed. The shots of Mars & the incredible variety of its landscapes & surface features are particularly mind-blowing, as are the numerous fold-out panoramas throughout the book.
Fully recommended!
As a child of the space race era, I have been a life-long addict of astronomy, space flight & large, heavily illustrated books about space.
This book by writer, filmmaker & photographer Michael Benson, is a collection of truly amazing pictures covering most of the major planetary bodies in our solar system & has been compiled from the very best space probe images from the dawn of space exploration in the early 1960s right up to on-going missions to explore the outer solar system. The book includes the Earth & Moon, the Sun, a number of asteroids, alll the planets (with the exception of Pluto which has not yet been visited by space probes), & a good number of moons of other planets, notably those of Jupiter. There are many images of each object, giving a real impression of what it must be like to see these worlds for yourself. The highlights for me were: the images from Mars Global Surveyor, whose detail & resolution is stunning; the moons of Jupiter, a mini solar system in itself of incredible colour & diversity; & Saturn’s rings in superb detail. I was also amazed by the detailed radar images of the surface of cloud-covered Venus sent back by the Magellan probe, very few of which I had seen before. The text throughout the book is both interesting & informative, as are the Foreword by science-fiction grand-master & visionary Arthur C. Clarke & the Afterword by Lawrence Weschler, reporter, author & Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
There are a number of space photography books of this type on the market & I own a several of these, however, I can safely say that this book is the best example of the genre that I have come across. The images are carefully chosen & are truly awe-inspiring & I recognised only very few that I’d seen in other books or websites. The quality of the photographic reproduction is first-rate & where large mosaics have been assembled from smalller images, this has been done absolutely seamlessly. The cover photo of the crescent Neptune & its moon is like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey & like many of the pictures in this book, is almost beyond belief. If, like me, you are a big fan of space & can’t wait for humanity to get off this rock we calll home & see what else is out there, then this is the book for you. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
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