Planetarium

Raman Prinja, Chris Wormell Templar Publishing £20 HB

Planetarium is the latest instalment in the Welcome to the Museum series of books produced by London’s Science Museum. Previous volumes included such titles as Botanicum, Animalium and Dinosaurium (you can probably guess their respective subject matters), and this astronomy-themed tome is an excellent addition to the collection. The first thing that catches your eye are the beautiful illustrations. They are quite simply stunning and will instantly entice readers of any age into the book. It’s rather like being drawn into a magical world with colour, mystery and excitement. The reader’s taken on a whistle stop tour of the Universe and provided with concise descriptions of the planets within the Solar System, as well as comets and meteors, from the Big Bang right through to the fate of our Universe. There are also sections on exoplanets and black holes, while Professor Raman Prinja briefly discusses the constellations visible from both hemispheres, which would each be worthy of separate books. Each subject is split into a gallery, like a museum for the mind’s eye, and every illustration is given its own accompanying text, which allows the reader to gain a sense of the scale of the topic being described and provides an excellent reference point.

Such a broad spectrum of topics is covered that the book cannot delve into detailed science, but there are plenty of snappy and interesting facts on each page that all readers will be able to enjoy and learn from, no matter their level of understanding of the subject. This book is a worthwhile addition to any astronomer’s library, ideal for leafing through on a cloudy evening to let the mind wander into the mysteries of our Universe.

KATRIN RAYNOR EVANS is an amateur astronomer, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the librarian for Cardiff Astronomical Society