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from the July 2004 Sky & Telescope:
Totally Solar Equipped, review by Carolyn Collins Petersen
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Sun
Jay M. Pasachoff (Alpha Books, 2003)
350 pages. ISBN 1-59257-074-7. $18.95, paperbound.
Ask someone what there is to know about the Sun and you may hear, "It's hot
and it shines. What's more to know?" Take it to the next level and ask why
it's hot and how it shines, and you may not get an answer as now you've
ventured into some fairly complex physics. That's where Jay Pasachoff and his
Complete Idiot's Guide to the Sun come in handy.
It isn't that the author thinks you're an idiot if you don't know much about
the Sun. Quite the contrary. Pasachoff (a professor of astronomy at Williams
College in Williamstown, Massachusetts) loves to talk about the Sun, and it
shows. He gently takes you by the hand and tells you everything you want to
know about our star, and more. The book is divided into six sections telling
us what the Sun looks like, how it has evolved, what eclipses are and what we
learn by observing them, how we study the Sun, and how the Sun and Earth are
linked.
Before you realize you're delving into solar physics, you've learned about
nuclear physics in the core of the Sun, how solar neutrinos were first
detected, how a spectrum of sunlight tells what elements can be found in the
solar atmosphere, where the Sun stands in the hierarchy of stars, and -
Pasachoff's favorite topic - the mechanics of total solar eclipses.
Just about the time you get around to wondering, "How do we know all this
stuff?" the book launches into a world-spanning tour of solar observatories.
Then Pasachoff takes the reader on a leap into space, first aboard sounding
rockets and then highlighting the four decades of orbiting telescopes. The
comprehensive views we have of the Sun, its structures, and its effects on the
rest of the solar system (through radiation, the solar wind, flares, and other
outbursts) are largely due to the years-long efforts of physicists using
these observatories.
My favorite section is the last one, titled "The Sun-Earth Connection." In
its three chapters - "Constancy, Thy Name Isn't the Sun," "Greenhouses of
Salt," and "The Forecast Today Is Flares" - Pasachoff brings everything we've
learned in the previous chapters into sharp focus. He relates it all to our
existence here on Earth, as beings within range of a living, "breathing" star.
When the Sun burps out a flare, the Earth "sees" the consequences very
quickly thereafter, and scientists collect immense amounts of data. As our
star moves through a sunspot cycle, we can observe the effects. Because of
changes occurring in our own atmosphere, we can map the effects of the Sun
across the planet, especially in places like Punta Arenas, Chile, where solar
ultraviolet radiation streaming through the ozone hole poses a clear and
present danger each spring. These cases point out that the relationship
between the Sun and the Earth is complex and ever changing, and that our role
is not always a passive one.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It's written in clear, approachable
language, giving the casual reader who doesn't mind learning a little bit of
physics along the way a good feel for the complex topics involved in
understanding the solar system's main energy source. Pasachoff begins each
chapter with bullet points - sort of an executive summary of what he will
discuss later. After delving into the topics, he concludes each chapter with
another summary. Occasionally this approach leads to excessive repetition.
although a keener editorial eye could have prevailed over some particularly
wordy sections, overall Pasachoff does a good job explaining the complexities
of solar physics to the layperson.
The structure of each chapter enhances the book's overall approachability.
Boxes give the reader bite-size nuggets of "Sun Fun Facts," "Solar
Scribblings," and others. There are also many illustrations and photographs
(but just a few in color).
Pasachoff often uses references from the history and popular culture to help
the reader understand a point. In Chapter 28 he talks about the dangers posed
to astronauts traveling through space and invokes images from movies to
introduce the concept of space weather, the disturbances imparted in the
interplanetary medium by flares and other outbursts from the Sun.
"Buck Rogers, Captain Video, and other early fictional astronauts moved easily
around the solar system. But the solar system, outside the Earth's protective
envelope, is a rough place. High-energy particles of light, including x-rays
and gamma rays, and fast-moving particles of matter smack into whatever is up
there. To function in space, we must be alert to space weather."
This kind of colorful writing livens up what could be a dreadfully dull
topic at the hands of a less imaginative writer. Those reading The Complete Idiot's
Guide to the Sun will come away saying, "Well, there is more to know about the
Sun," and feel good about how they learned it.
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