by David Baron,
read by Jonathan Yen
So timely to listen to this book just before the "Great Eclipse" of 2017! It's about a total solar eclipse on July 29, 1878, visible in Wyoming and Colorado (among some other states - I would have been able to see it from my backyard in Texas!). It focuses on three notable scientists who were there to view it: Thomas Edison, Maria Mitchell, and James Craig Watson (the latter completely new to me). Other astronomers of the day, such as Cleveland Abbe, Simon Newcomb, Samuel Langley, and Henry Draper, are also featured.
Author David Baron recounts activities and preparations for the observation of the event, and details the minutes of the eclipse as well. He also follows up with what happened to his principals - and their inventions and theories - afterward. Edison invented something called a tasimeter to measure the heat produced by the sun, and Watson was searching for a planet between Mercury and the sun called Vulcan. I wondered why I had never heard of either of these before - the book provides the explanations. I found the whole book to be fascinating.
Baron, who used to be a science correspondent for NPR, writes beautifully. Here is a quote from near the end of the book:
A total eclipse is a primal, transcendent experience. The shutting off of the sun does not bring utter darkness; it is more like falling through a trapdoor into a dimly lit, unrecognizable reality. The sky is not the sky of the earth—neither the star-filled dome of night nor the immersive blue of daylight, but an ashen ceiling of slate. A few bright stars and planets shine familiarly, like memories from a distant childhood, but the most prominent object is thoroughly foreign. You may know, intellectually, that it is both the sun and moon, yet it looks like neither. It is an ebony pupil surrounded by a pearly iris. It is the eye of the cosmos. [page 183]
Jonathan Yen reads the audiobook - and while he's not great, he's ok. He has a voice very similar to that of 1970s-80s radio personality Casey Kasem (rather sing-song-y), and that's not quite the right tone for this book.
© Amanda Pape - 2017
[I received this audiobook from the publisher via the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. It will be donated to either my university or my local public library.]
No comments:
Post a Comment