Mapping the heavens

An unexpectedly well-rounded medley of astronomy, cartography, and history. Informative in a way that I think will stick with me: along with descriptions of cosmological phenomena, Natarajan explains how and why we know what we do. The who and the when. What did they notice in the skies? What questions did those observations raise, how did they go about searching for answers, what technologies did they have available to them, and—most discouraging—what personality conflicts hindered them?

I long for an updated edition. The book was published in 2014, which you’d think is fairly recent but it really isn’t. In particular, just a few months after publication, LIGO recorded observations that confirmed some of her predictions. It was fun, and inspiring, to see what Natarajan has been up to in these last ten years.