Astronomy Books
General Astronomy
Anthony Fairall: Starwatching (Iziko Planetarium, ISBN 9781868727384)
This introductory text – with full colour illustrations throughout - covers all of Astronomy, without venturing into technical detail. In particular there is a chapter showing the universe of ever larger scales, as well as a set of twelve star maps suitable for any month and time of night.
Anthony Fairall: Stargazing from game reserves in South Africa (Struik Publishers, ISBN 9781770072152)
A DIY guide to getting started in finding constellations and points of interest in the night sky, from sites in Southern Africa with minimal artificial lighting, especially game reserves.
Anthony Fairall: Starwise (available from December 2008)
Especially produced for IYA 2009, this is a colourful large format book aimed at youngsters from 11 upwards. It includes features on SALT and MeerKAT, and progresses from the Earth to the Cosmic Microwave Background. The book is available in both English and Afrikaans.
J.S. Bondietti, revised by Anthony Fairall: A Beginner’s Guide to the Southern Stars (Iziko Museums, ISBN 0868130478)
A simple set of 12 black-and-white star maps.
History of Astronomy
Ian Glass: Proxima - The Nearest Star (Mons Mensa Publishing, ISBN 9780981412603)
A history of measuring the distance to Alpha Centauri and (later) to Proxima Centauri, the currently accepted nearest star (other than the Sun). It explains how it happened that the first distance to a star was measured in Cape Town. It sets out how Proxima Centauri was first detected at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg and then confirmed as the nearest star by the Yale Southern Observatory in the same city. It ends up with modern distance measurements made via the Hipparcos satellite. (See http://www.saao.ac.za/~isg/proxima.html for more details.)
Brian Warner: Astronomers at the Royal Observatory Cape of Good Hope (A. A. Balkema, ISBN 0869611097)
A history of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, the forerunner of today's South African Astronomical Observatory. It focusses on the Observatory's directors in the nineteenth century.
Simon Singh: Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It (HarperPerennial, ISBN 9780007152520)
Spanning the time from antiquity to the end of the 20th century, this book tells the history of cosmology and the scientists that were concerned with it.