Date: June 2, 2009

Title: Sky Above and Worlds Beyond: A Book Review and Memoir

Podcaster: Amy Bowen

Link: Amy Bowen’s website
http://amybowen.wordpress.com/

Description: Books can do more than educate and entertain us – they can also shape our lives and spark our imaginations. In today’s episode, we’ll take a look back at a book about astronomy that did all of those things for this podcaster. Sky Above and Worlds Beyond, published in 1983, was the book that introduced me to the wonders of the universe. We’ll talk about what made the book so fascinating and so entertaining, and how it has stayed with me throughout my life.

Bio: Amy Bowen is an aspiring science-fiction and fantasy writer and podcast novelist who has made guest appearances on several podcasts about sci-fi, fantasy, and entertainment. She grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and is currently living in Lake Worth, Florida, for a year of national service.

Today’s sponsor: This episode of 365 Days of Astronomy is sponsored by the Physics Department at Eastern Illinois University: “Caring faculty guiding students through teaching and research” at www.eiu.edu/~physics/

Transcript:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast for June 2nd, 2009. My name is Amy Bowen. I’m an aspiring science-fiction and fantasy writer and future podcast novelist who has made guest appearances on several other podcasts. I’m not actively involved in astronomy now, but I’ve been listening to this podcast since the beginning, and I’ve been reading the Bad Astronomy Blog since before that. There was a time in my life when I was even more fascinated by astronomy than I am now, and I’d like to share my memories of that time in today’s episode, and in the two episodes I’ll be contributing later this summer.

Like most writers, I’ve been an avid reader all my life. As a child, I read many books that influenced me and shaped my understanding of the world. One of the few nonfiction books in that category is Sky Above and Worlds Beyond, by Judith Herbst. I believe I was in fourth grade, which, for me, was the 1995-1996 school year, when I ran across this book in my elementary school’s library. I’m not quite sure why I was interested in reading a book about astronomy at that age. Maybe it was just because I liked the simple beauty of the black-and-white telescope image of stars on the cover. Or, it might have been because the teachers at my elementary school had led every single one of their students out to the playground on January 4, 1992, to see the annular solar eclipse, and that had left an impression on me. Whatever the reason was, I opened that book and was absolutely captivated by it. I remember checking it out and rereading it many times during fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. Every time I read it, I experienced the wonder of the universe. Granted, the book was pretty far out of date, even then. It had been published in 1983, and there was one chapter that listed the dates and locations where Halley’s Comet would be visible… in 1986, the year I had been born. I remember being disappointed that I had missed out on that.

The main reason I loved this book so much was that it was so different from an ordinary science textbook or reference book. It was pure, unadulterated fun to read. Each chapter focused on a different topic, such as the moon, the characteristics of the planets in the solar system, gravity, black holes, the life cycle of stars, important astronomical discoveries, and even the possibility of extraterrestrial life. Instead of simply presenting information on all these topics in factual prose passages, most of the chapters featured short science-fiction stories with scientific facts expertly woven into them, which made the book an excellent one to read for pleasure, as well as for education. I have since found out that the author, Judith Herbst, also wrote a number of other books for children, such as The Golden Book of Stars and Planets. She has a remarkable talent for writing with a playful voice that engages young readers. The book also had many different kinds of illustrations, ranging from telescope images of stars and planets, to hand-drawn diagrams illustrating things like gravity, to humorous cartoons related to the themes of the chapters, all of which made reading it even more enjoyable.

Even after all these years, I can remember many of the short stories very well. One of them followed a group of space tourists on a guided tour of the moon. One took the reader on a tour of the entire solar system. One described what might happen to a pair of hypothetical invulnerable people if they were to enter a black hole and travel at or near the speed of light, respectively. The most bittersweet and beautiful of them all was the story of the eclipse observers who observed the very last solar eclipse ever seen from Earth, right before its sun expanded to become a red giant. Not all of the stories in the book were fictional, though. There were also retellings of true stories from the history of astronomy, the stories of the discoveries made by Galileo, Cassini, and Giovanni Schiaparelli, who first observed the so-called “canals” on the surface of Mars. In both the fiction and nonfiction sections of the text, the author often wrote in the second person, using “you,” which pulled me into the text and made the stories in the book that much more memorable. They were all so captivatingly written and sparked my imagination so much that I often fantasized about the far-off places and fantastic scenarios the author described.

Even though I didn’t own my own copy until just recently, Sky Above and Worlds Beyond has stayed with me since childhood. Most of my background knowledge about astronomy and the universe, and the sense of wonder I still have toward those things, originated somewhere in the pages of that book. There are a number of things I wouldn’t have done if I had never read that book. I never would have chosen astronomy as one of my science electives in college. I probably never would have tried my hand at writing sci-fi, and I might not have become such a sci-fi fan. I also wouldn’t have done any of the other creative projects that the book inspired me to do, which will be the topic of my next episode. And, of course, I wouldn’t have been interested in reading the Bad Astronomy Blog, which is where I found out about this podcast.

Sky Above and Worlds Beyond appears to be out of print now, but there should be a few used copies floating around websites such as Half.com. If you know a child whom you would like to see developing an interest in astronomy, or space science, or science fiction, or just in reading, I highly recommend getting them this book.

Until next time, this is Amy Bowen, signing off.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. Until tomorrow…goodbye.