7 h 35 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
The ground beneath your feet is travelling through the sky. What else changes when you look up?
In Astronomy for Amateurs, Camille Flammarion invites you to feel at home among the heavens. He begins with Earth in motion, then turns to the Moon, the Sun and our neighbouring planets. This is science for the curious reader, not a course for professionals. Measurements give shape to the wonder, from the Sun’s size to the immense distances between stars.
Flammarion treats you as an intelligent friend as he explores what neighbouring worlds look like and how the sky moves. Comets arrive with glowing heads and long tails; beyond our solar family, stars emerge as distant suns. First published in 1903, this guide also offers a glimpse of how people once pictured the universe, rather than an account of current discoveries.
What you’ll discover
- Earth in motion Shift your viewpoint from solid ground to a world travelling through the heavens.
- The Moon as landscape Discover why Flammarion presents our nearest neighbour as an amateur’s best first target.
- Our family of worlds Explore the Sun’s light and heat, then meet the planets one by one.
- Visitors with glowing tails Follow Flammarion into the world of comets and meteors, beyond the familiar planets.
- Distances that stretch imagination Venture beyond the Sun to stars so distant that ordinary measures no longer serve.
Who will love it
For beginners with a love of the night sky, readers who enjoy science told as a story, and anyone curious about how people once pictured the universe.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Your home is a planet in motion
- The Moon is a world you can study
- The Sun rules and feeds the system
- The planets are neighbours worth knowing
- Comets and meteors are visitors from space
- The stars reveal a vast, living universe
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Astronomy for Amateurs
by Camille Flammarion · 1903
Flammarion turns the night sky into a place to explore, where careful observation reveals the worlds overhead.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Astronomy for Amateurs is a guide to the heavens written for people who look up at the night sky and want to understand it. Its author, Camille Flammarion, was a French astronomer and writer who spent his life persuading ordinary readers that the universe belongs to them.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Your home is a planet in motion
Flammarion begins by changing the point of view. The Earth, he says, is not a still platform with the sky wheeling above it. It is a round planet that spins on its axis and travels around the Sun, and everything we see in the heavens must be understood with that in mind.
He uses simple observations to make the case. The daily rising and setting of the Sun and stars comes from the turning of the Earth. The changing seasons and the shifting patterns of the constellations through the year come from our path around the Sun. A reader can check these things by watching the sky night after night.
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What is Astronomy for Amateurs about?
It is a popular guide to the sky. Flammarion describes the Earth's motion, the Moon, the Sun, the planets, comets, meteors and stars, and shows how an ordinary observer can learn to understand what is overhead.
Who was Camille Flammarion?
He was a French astronomer and popular writer who died in 1925. He wrote many books that brought astronomy to wide audiences, and he also wrote about life on other worlds and about the wonders of the universe.
Which objects in the sky does Astronomy for Amateurs cover?
Flammarion's tour takes in the Earth as a moving world, the Moon, the Sun, the planets from Mercury to Neptune, comets and shooting stars, and finally the stars, double stars, nebulae and the Milky Way, joining measurement with a sense of wonder.
The author
Camille Flammarion
1842–1925 · French astronomer and author
Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was born in Montigny-le-Roi and died in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. He wrote books explaining astronomy, including Popular Astronomy, published in 1880, and novels, including Urania, published in 1889. He founded an observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge in 1883.
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