Signals from the Stars

Abstract

“ASTRONOMERS, like other men,” writes Prof. Hale, “spend most of their lives in hard and often tedious routine work. They are, however, sometimes fortunate enough to take part in a great adventure”; and the great adventure he now describes is the building of the 200-inch telescope. This is the subject of his last chapter, but in fact the whole book forms an exciting story of a series of adventures. Although it is named “Signals from the Stars”, its main concern is with our astronomical receiving sets on earth, and how we may still further improve them, so as to interpret the signals better and reach more and more distant stations. Thus it differs from most popular books on astronomy, and while it will interest professional astronomers and also the general reader, its greatest value probably lies in the stimulating appeal it will make to the amateur astronomer.

Signals from the Stars.

By George Ellery Hale. Pp. xx + 138. (London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.) 7s. 6d. net.