Excellent book | The Astrolabe

A Definitive Reference | The Astrolabe

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	• The Astrolabe Janus, 2007 - 438 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A sundialer's view

As a sundial enthusiast, I enjoy puzzling over the geometry of the heavens and have always admired astrolabes, though never really explored them. Armed with this book, I have been able to do so with huge enjoyment.
It covers the history, though not in great depth, and the engraving of all the scales on every variety of astrolabe and all related devices - quadrants in particular but also some sundials and astronomical clocks.

This book is all about the geometry - how the scales were divided and so on, not how they were made, where or by whom. There are few photographs of astrolabes.
I have found some errors in the mathematics, and have found the author very grateful for my pointing them out.

The book covers an immense number of topics in great detail but can be difficult to navigate. The organisation seems to assume rather a high level of knowledge, or patience. Many items are eventually explained, but perhaps not when first raised. Cross references, the Glossary and Index are poor for a 400 page book. The Bibliography lacks ISBN numbers. Many older books and exquisite photographs of museum collections are now available on-line, so URLs would be useful, though they can date rather quickly.

Bringing the subject right up-to-date, Morrison includes code fragments (in Basic and C) for all the calculations needed to get a computer to draw an astrolabe, but they are so long that a CD or Web link would have been welcome.

If, as I do, you already own books on the history of instruments you may wonder if you need this book. I'd say yes, if you have any interest in the geometry and certainly, if you want to make an astrolabe. But no, if you're interested in decorative styles, want a coffee-table book or a guide to prices.

As other reviewers have noted, the binding and paper quality are poor. The value in this book is in what's written on the pages, which, in my experience, do make it the definitive book on the astrolabe.

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Excellent book

This book summarizes 300 years of knowledge found in previous books, in a clear style and with accurate drawings. I use to read Henri Michel's treatise on astrolabes, and D'Hollander book. Both were interesting but more difficult to read and use, even though they are in French, my language.
Morrison's book allowed me to understand how astrolabes work and are drawn. I applied this knowledge to my shareware program Shadows that draws and animates astrolabes on screen. Thank you James Morrison for making this possible, thanks to your excellent book.

A Definitive Reference

This book is the best reference on the subject of astrolabes I have been able to find. It is detailed, in-depth and has something for every reader. For the student looking to find an overview of the history and uses of this marvelous tool, it covers the basics. For the interested researcher it delves deeply into the design, history and functionality of both European and Islamic astrolabes. For math nerd there is delightful detail on the elegant geometry behind the design of the various parts. This is the best book I've seen come out this year.

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THE astrolabe book to have

I've been waiting for this book to be published for years, so I was very excited to get it, though $60 for a paperback is pretty steep. It's well worth it though: almost 400 pages of detailed information, including over 200 diagrams. I've been following Mr. Morrison's website, http://astrolabes.org/ for many years, and corresponded with him briefly several years ago when I had some questions about how to lay out an astrolabe geometrically. He was very gracious and helpful.

This book is THE astrolabe book. It's a modern treatment that includes computer code as well as ancient methods for laying out astrolabes. It includes all kinds of variations, including a "linear astrolabe" that consists of a marked stick and three strings, which the Arabs used about 800 years ago. It's amazing what the human mind can do with very little in the way of actual material stuff. He also includes the "universal astrolabe" that works at all latitudes, and several versions of the "quadrant astrolabe" that is essentially an astrolabe folded in quarters and printed on a card. There's a fair amount of history, and lots of math (nothing beyond high-school trig). He takes both a geometric and analytic approach, with diagrams as well as formulas. His explanation of why and how the linear astrolabe works was amazing.

I have both of John Lamprey's books (both highly recommended. I think he's still selling them: lamprey at frii dot com) and have also read Chaucer's book. I'm very glad to have added this one to my shelf.

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Fantstic *Modern* Astrolabe Book

First, if you're interested at all in astrolabes, this is the single best, most informative, most comprehensive book I've found. It's clear, concise and well illustrated. I'm very tempted to use the chapter on stereographic projections in my GIS classes.

It doesn't have many illustrations of historic instruments, but that's not it's focus. You can find those in the Time Museum or Western Astrolabes book and get more nuts and bolts info about the production process from Scientific Instruments of Elizabethan England. But for creating and using an astrolabe, you can't find a better reference- UNLESS you really want to use period processes. He doesn't even try to show how it was done, dismissing it with "Readers interested in the mathematical approach used in the Middle Ages are referred to Thomson for a thorough treatment"- that would be the translation of de Plana Spera. As I keep telling my daughter, life gets boring if you don't have anything to long for. I'll start saving the (argh!) $150 for that next.

The contents (with the exception of using trig instead of geometry to create the layout) are exceptional. The physical book is less so. I plan on using this heavily and I don't think it's going to hold up. The paperback cover is glued to the front and back pages to try to give it some stability, but the glue is already losing its hold. The pages themselves are glued in rather than bound. I know there wasn't a real choice in that, but it's a thick book and it's not going to hold up well- think of the Calvin and Hobbes collectors' editions. The paper is already yellowing and I just got it last week. I *know* these choices had to be made to keep the cost of the book down to something that wouldn't make people scream, but I'm going to take it to Kinkos and have it drilled so I can capture it inside a 3 ring binder. I'm not going to risk losing any of the pages. It has enough white space to make that feasible and still have room left over for notes.

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The Astrolabe is the most complete astrolabe treatise available. It includes the description, history, use, theory and design of all types of astrolabes and several related devices, updated to modern methods and terminology. Application of computers to astrolabe design and practical advice on making an inexpensive working astrolabe are included. Includes 264 figures. Bound with OTABind, lay-flat binding.

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