The Sky Mystery, Magic, and Myth

The Sky Mystery, Magic, and Myth 

Jean-Pierre Verdet 1992

I have several of these "Discovery" series of books and they are all fascinating and filled with vintage illustrations.  Nice books to pick up to read for a bit here and there.  This was another one that we pulled out to look at when Charlotte was learning about the moon in school.

What We See in the Stars

We are such little men when the stars come out....

What a wonderful illustrated tour of the night sky!  I love the style of Kelsey Oseid's illustrations. She fills this book with information about stars and the myths behind constellations, about the phases of the moon, the planets and deep space.  All the science is there presented in a digestible, graphically appealing way.

What We See in the Stars

Kelsey Oseid 2017

"To take a moment and gaze up is to connect to an ancient human experience, and can be a great source of wonder and awe."

Spinning in Space

I confess I only got this book for its cover.  (When books are 25 cents it's easy to do!).  However, I ended up learning about something fascinating!  In 1973 NASA selected experiments designed by high school students to take into space to Skylab.  One of the experiments chosen was submitted by 17-year-old Judith Miles of Massachusetts.  She proposed watching how spiders would spin a web in zero gravity (an interesting experiment as gravity is integral to how spiders drop down from their silk lines to make a web).  Cameras were included to watch the two spiders named Arabella and Anita.  The results were so interesting!

Spinning in Space

Elizabeth Levy 1975

illustrated by Ted Lewin