This is a beautifully produced little book in which the editors have collected some of Einstein's thoughts and writings on a diverse range of subjects and put them together with some wonderfully awe-inspiring pictures of the Universe he did so much to explain. I have seen far more subtle and penetrating images from ground-based telescopes, many of which I have secured myself throughout a career in astronomy lasting over sixty years. Personally, I do not find these images attractive – far too mocked-up for the occasion. It should be noted that Einstein was not over enthusiastic about this hypothesis. The caption of page 113 has a priori reference to “big bang”. To the uninitiated it is not clear exactly where the “red” Antares fits into this photograph, and the globular cluster (M 4) lower right, is not mentioned.
Here there is also confusion over spelling with reference to the two constellations Ophiuchus (rendered as “Ophiuhci”) and Scorpius. ” On page 123, Antares is referred to as a red supergiant star. On page 29 it is stated the first magnitude star, Antares, (alpha Scorpii) that “It has spent most of its short life as a highly luminous blue supergiant star. But these captions need to give more detail as to date and instrumentation. As to Jupiter? Possibly down the bottom middle in Sagittarius. Yes, a section of the Milky Way is there plain enough with first magnitude star Altair top, middle left.
Arcturus within its constellation Bootes is there (far right), together with Corona Borealis (left), but no “Big Dipper” (Plough), which is to the right and off-frame. One has to take on trust the quotes from Einstein himself the rest is a mixed bag.Īs for the captions. The text is a mixture of Einstein’s quotes and contributions from the two compilers, together with a plethora of colour images, mostly taken with extra-terrestrial imaging devices. I must admit to having mixed views on this 151 page book (no index, incidentally).