[X] My Assistant

[mars loon]

Prof. Jim Bell of Cornell University will present “Postcards from Mars: Spirit and Opportunity Roam the Red Planet” at a lecture on 12 December 2006 on the campus of Princeton University at 8 PM in Peyton Hall (Ivy Lane). Free and open to the public. UMSF forum members especially welcome. The lecture is sponsored by the Amatuer Astronomers Association of Princeton. Please visit the website or contact me for details:
http://www.princetonastronomy.org/

Prof. Bell will also be signing copies of his new, highly praised book “Postcards from Mars: The First Photographer on the Red Planet”.

Today (publication day) I received a stack of copies and my review is that its FABULOUS. The book is glossy with high quality reproductions and quite current. Mars fans will love this book. There are over 10 fold out panoramic panels of 3 and 4 pages in width. So now you can savor and contemplate the images. And its vastly superior to a computor monitor.

Although most of the content ends around Sol 600 or so due to publishing deadlines, Jim did manage to include some late breaking and striking images from Home Plate and Erebus. Only the latest images from McMurdo and Victoria are not included.

The book is divided into 3 chapters focusing on the prelaunch history, followed by details on Spirit and Opportunity and concluding with a brief postscript of late breaking images

ken

Ken Kremer

Program Chairman
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton

http://www.princetonastronomy.org/
mailto: ken@princetonastronomy.org

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Received my book this evening via Amazon.co.uk and the publication looks fine. I like both the format ( 30 X 30 centimeters ) and the quality glossy pages. Photos & panoramas cover Spirit as far as sol 751 and Opportunity as far as sol 666. One thing I miss is the JPL photo-number at each image, which is always a good reference to find the image in different formats in the online JPL Planetary Photo Journal.
I fully understand Doug's idea to wait the mission out and publish a complete mission overview book, as I want to see more than 190 pages
Overall 8/10 for this superb hardcover book!