DAS Book Club


Delaware Astronomical Society Book Club

  The Delaware Astronomical Society Book Club meets monthly on the last Thursday of the Month via ZOOM. Guests are welcome. ZOOM Links are emailed in advance of the meeting. To join or attend a meeting, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you would like to automatically add these events to
your calendar please see the DAS Calendar.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Next Up

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Catchers of the Light
by Stefan Hughes

 

Meeting details below:

 
 
 

 

 

 

2024

 


Trudy E Bell

Thursday, January 25, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

Ormsby Macknight Mitchel, Astronomer and
General: A Biographical Narrative (1887)

By Frederick Augustus Mitchel

Referred to as Old Stars, Ormsby Macknight Mitchel (1809-1862) was a Civil War General, Surveyor, and Astronomer who published the Sidereal Messenger, first astronomy magazine in the United States.

Philip S. Shoemaker PhD, author of the thesis, Ormsby Macknight Mitchel and Astronomy in Antebellum America, will be joining us.

Trudy E. Bell, contributing editor for Sky & Telescope and a member of the editorial advisory board for Springer’s Historical & Cultural Astronomy book series, will also be joining us.

 

Available in free PDF format

 

DAS Member, Brad Wolvin, will lead the meeting

   

Barbara J. Becker

Thursday, February 29, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

How William Huggins Shaped Astrophysics
by Barbara J. Becker

Celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of
English astronomer William Huggins (1824–1910),
best known for his pioneering work in
astronomical spectroscopy
together with his wife, Margaret

50 Monuments in 50 Voices:
Monument to William and Margaret Huggins

by Barbara Becker PhD

 

Jim Barkley will lead the meeting.

 


 Dr Barbara J. Becker will join us


How William Huggins
Shaped Astrophysics
(pdf copy)
   
Diane McDevitt, the granddaughter of Philip Frances Nowlan

Thursday, March 28, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

Amazing Stories - ARMAGEDDON -2419 A.D. 
by Philip Francis Nowlan

We will be discussing Armageddon - 2419 A.D, the novella, which introduces the character, Buck Rogers, in the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories.

Nowlan's granddaughter, Diane McDevitt, will be joining us to discuss her grandfather's life, work, and his iconic character.

Matt Bobrowsky and Marie Breton Bobrowsky, DAS Members, will lead the discussion.

Local artist, Matthew Borgen, hopes to attend the meeting.

The novella is available to borrow at archive.org

   

Peter Bellerby

Thursday, April 25, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft
by Peter Bellerby

 

The author, Peter Bellerby, will be joining us for our discussion.

DAS Member, Gregory McNiff, will lead the meeting

   

Nico Carver

Thursday, May 30, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

Catchers of the Light
by Stefan Hughes

The ‘Catchers of the Light’ tells the true stories of the men and women who first photographed the heavensTheir lives are ones full of adventure, adversity and triumph - which would test the abilities of even the best author or screenwriter to recreate as a work of fiction. Sadly their names are largely unknown and all but forgotten - confined now to the closed pages of history. Through the book you are about to read, they come alive once again.

 


Nico Carver, DAS member and dedicated deep-sky astrophotographer (see his popular YouTube channel) will lead our discussion.

 

Members of the Delaware Photographic Society will join us for our discussion.

The Book is available at the author's web site.

   

Marcia Bartusiak

Thursday, June 27, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

The Day We Found the Universe
by Marcia Bartusiak

Professor Marcia Bartusiak will join us as we mark the 100th anniversary of Hubble's discovery of the Andromeda Galaxy.

David Ives Brown, DAS Book Club member and Rittenhouse Astronomical Society Board Member, will lead our discussion.

Available via the Delaware Libraries in book and e-audiobook formats.

   

Tamara Plakins Thornton

Thursday, July 25, 2024
7  PM
Via ZOOM

Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers:
How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science,
and the Sea Changed American Life

by Tamara Plakins Thornton

 

Professor Tamara Plakins Thornton will join us

 

The ebook is available via the Delaware Libraries.

   
Prof Chris Lintott | University of Oxford Department of Physics
Chris Lintott

Thursday, August 29, 2024
7  PM
Via ZOOM

Accidental Astronomy:
How Random Discoveries Shape the Science of Space

by Chris Lintott

 

Professor Lintott, Gresham College's 39th Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Astrophysics in Oxford University,  will join us for our discussion.

Accidental Astronomy by Chris Lintott | Hachette Book Group

 

 

   
Sarah Stewart Johnson | Penguin Random House
Sarah Stewart Johnson

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World

by Sarah Stewart Johnson

 

 

Professor Johnson will join us for our discussion.

 

Jim Kerschen PhD, DAS Board Member and Education and Outreach Chair, will lead the meeting.

The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson: 9781101904831 |  PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
   


Rosyln Frank

 

Restoring the Land, One Half-Acre at a Time: The Story of the Lenape Indian  Tribe of Delaware | Sierra ClubChief Dennis J.Coker

Thursday, October 24, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM
 

Lenape Astronomy
A paper twill be shared by Professor Emeritus Rosyln Frank
on the subject of the Lenape and Astronomy

 

Professor Roslyn Frank will join our discussion.

Chief Dennis J. Coker and Citizens of the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware
will join us for our discussion

 

A paper by Professor Roslyn Frank
 on the subject of Lenape Indian Astronomy
   
David DeVorkin
David DeVorkin PhD

Thursday, November 28, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

American Astronomical Society is celebrating its Quasquicentennial
in 2024; in honor of the occasion, 
we will discuss

Origin of the AAS

by David DeVorkin PhD

Dr. DeVorkn will join us for our discussion.

Members of the AAS are welcome to join us for our discussion.

 

 

 

   

 Ian Stewart

 

Thursday, December 19, 2024
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
by Jennifer Ackerman

 

 Ian Stewart, ornithologist with the
Delaware Nature Society (DNS), will join us to discuss the Ackerman book and Owls in Delaware.

Members of the DNS are invited to join  us for our discussion.

 

 

   
 

 

 

2025

 

Valerie Shrimplin

Thursday, January 30, 2025
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

Richard of Wallingford
By Valerie Shrimplin

 

Greg McNiff will lead the meeting

 
   
     
 

Thursday, February 27, 2025
7 PM ET
Via ZOOM

Starborn
How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them)

by Roberto Trotta

 

 

   
  Future Reads  
  John Carter of Mars Barsoom Series: A Princess of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs

     
  ____________________  
  An Astronomer in Love
by Antoine Laurain
  ____________________  
  David Rittenhouse: Philosopher-Mechanick
of Colonial Philadelphia and His Famous Clocks

by Donald L. Fennimore and Frank L. Hohmann
   

 

 

2023

 

 


Sir Christoher Wren


Valerie Shrimplin

 

Thursday, January 26, 2023
2PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

 

Celebrate Wren | 300

 

Sir Christopher Wren: Architect-Astronomer
by Valerie Shrimplin


An essay from the book
Imagining Other Worlds: Explorations in Astronomy and Culture
Edited by Nicholas Campion & Chris Impey
Essays were originally gathered at the conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena at London’s Gresham College in 2015

Professor Shrimplin shall be joining our discussion from London.
Dr Valerie Shrimplin is an Art Historian, Researcher and Author, who was awarded her PhD for her research entitled 'Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment'.' She has subsequently produced a number of academic publications focusing on the influence of astronomy and cosmology on art and architecture, particularly of the Byzantine, medieval and Renaissance periods.

 

 

 


Professor Sarah Hall


Lukas Boser



David Aragai



Jean Bowe Strickland


Dr. Bethany Cobb Kung

Thursday, February 23, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

What is a Philom? A Philom is the compiler of astronomical data

Almanacs and Philoms in 18th century Wilmington



Discussion of the first Delaware almanac, The Wilmington Almanack for 1762 by Thomas Fox, which was printed by Delaware's first printer and publisher, James Adams. Thomas Fox is the pseudonym of John Tobler, a Swiss emigre to the Carolinas who founded and served as the Astronomer Philomath of the Appenzeller Kalender, an almanac which is in its 302nd year of publication. The 1762 almanac is a historic document of interest to Delawareans and to the DAS and will continue to be an ongoing focus for the DAS Library in its mission to advance scientific knowledge.
 We are rich in a panel of guests and hope that DAS Members will join our discussion about Tobler or submit questions to the DAS Librarian in advance of the meeting.

  • David Aragai MA, archivist and historian, Switzerland
  • Professor Lukas Boser PhD, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
  • Professor Sarah Hall PhD, Berea College
  • Amanda Zimmerman, Rare Book Librarian from the Library of Congress
  • Jean Bowe Strickland, Tobler descendant and author of Five Fortune Tellers of New Windsor. Tobler, Zubly, Meyer, Sturzenegger, and Nail, Swiss Pioneer Families of South Carolina.
  • Dr. Bethany Cobb Kung, Associate Professor in Honors and Physics at the George Washington University and current Philom of the Old Farmer's Almanac founded in 1792.


The Library of Congress owns one of the few copies of the 1762 Wilmington Almanack and, Amanda Zimmerman, Rare Book librarian at the Library of Congress, has made the attached PDF copy available to members of the Delaware Astronomical Society to  facilitate our meeting and promote Tobler scholarship. Because the 18th century text can be challenging, the DAS Librarian has created a transcription of the text.
A transcription, in spreadsheet format, of the February almanac table has also been transcribed; Robert Stack is modelling the data using Stellarium software to check accuracy. We will discuss the Pennsylvania and Columbia Almanacs, if time permits.

 




 


The Wilmington Almanack 1762 


Pennsylvania Town and Country-Man's Almanack 1762


The Columbian Almanac
1793


 

 

 

   

Stephen Kurczy


Thursday, March 30, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM


The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence
by Stephen Kurczy

The author, Stephen Kurczy, will be joining us for our discussion.


DAS Member, Jim Barkley, will lead the meeting

   



Professor Hal Poe


Professor John Jebb


Glen Moyer
 

 

Thursday, April 27, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

Mellonta Tauta
by Edgar Allan Poe

Professor Hal Poe will be joining our discussion. Dr. Poe has written extensively about Poe and the universe, served on the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation and Museum of Richmond, and yes, is a relative of the legendary Edgar Allan Poe.

University of Delaware Professor John Jebb will also be joining our discussion.

Glen Moyer, Aviator and Editor of  Ballooning Magazine, will be joining us to provide his technical perspective on Poe's Pundit and balloons in the year 2848.
 

 

Story recommended by DAS Member, James Kauer, who hopes to join our discussion.


read it in
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
(page 303)
available at the
Internet Archive
you will need a (free) account
   

Donald E. Osborn

Thursday, May 25, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

With Stars in Their Eyes: The Extraordinary Lives and
Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel

by Alec M. Pridgeon and James B. Breckinridge

The authors, Alec M. Pridgeon and Donald E. Osborn, will be joining us for our discussion. Cynthia Osborn will also join us and share her experience working with the Meinels.

DAS Member, Robert Stack, will lead the meeting.

This book is available in EBook Format to
members of the Delaware Libraries
 

   

Donald Goldsmith

 

Thursday, June 29, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

The End of Astronauts
Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration

by Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees

Donald Goldsmith will be joining us for our discussion.

DAS and CCAS member, Chris Trunk, will lead the meeting

 

Listen to Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees
discuss their book on
The Planetary Society's Planetary Radio.

 

   
 

 

Thursday, July 27, 2023
(note date change)
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

July is for Sci Fi !

Dragon's Egg
by Robert L. Forward
 

DAS Member, Marie Breton, will lead the meeting

 

This book is available in eAudiobook Format to
members of the Delaware Libraries and available online at archive.org


 

   

 


Dave Groski

Thursday, August 31, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

We will discuss a landmark article, the first of a series of articles
about the Springfield Telescope Makers, which appeared in the
November, 1925 issue of Scientific American:

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God -
How a Group of Enthusiasts Learned to Make Telescopes
and Became Amateur Astronomers (1925)

by Albert C. Ingalls
(link to article)

The Springfield Telescope Makers (STM) are an amateur astronomer and telescope maker's group headquartered at their Stellafane Clubhouse and observatory on Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vermont; they were founded by Russell W. Porter in 1923 and, so, are celebrating their centenary from August 17-20, 2023.

The DAS salutes the Springfield Telescope Makers and their mission to stimulate interest in astronomy and allied sciences by preserving and fostering the skill of amateur telescope making.

 

Dave Groski, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory, will lead the meeting.

Members of the STM are invited to join the DAS Book Club
for our August Book Club meeting.

 


Stellafane Clubhouse and Porter Turret Telescope
   

Roderick J. Hill

Thursday, September 28, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

Adventures of an Eclipse Chaser 
by Roderick J Hill

 

For 20 years Rod and Monica Hill have been chasing
eclipses all around the world. They will be joining us
for our discussion.

 

DAS Board Member, Jim Kerschen, will lead the meeting

 

Available in Ebook Kindle format via Amazon.com

   


The Astronomer
by Jan Vermeer


 

Thursday, November 2, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

Eye of the Beholder:
Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek,
and the Reinvention of Seeing

by Laura J. Snyder

Commemorate the tercentenary of the death of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) and the landmark 2023 exhibition of Jan Vermeer's work at the Rijksmuseum

Vermeer painted the legendary, The Astronomer. "Portrayals of scientists were a favourite topic in 17th-century Dutch painting and Vermeer's oeuvre includes both this astronomer and the slightly later The Geographer. Both are believed to portray the same man, possibly Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. A 2017 study indicated that the canvas for the two works came from the same bolt of material, confirming their close relationship."

 

DAS Member, Robert Stack, will lead the meeting

 

Available to members of the Delaware Libraries in eBook and eAudiobook format.

   


Robert Westman


Sarah Horowitz


 

November 30, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

The esteemed Harvard professor and historian of astronomy,
Professor Owen Gingerich died on May 28th.




To honor his life and work, the Delaware Astronomical Society Book Club's November read is

The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
  by Owen Gingerich

  UC San Diego Emeritus Professor, Historian of Science, Robert Westman,
a renowned Copernicus scholar who collaborated
with Professor Gingerich, will join us.

Sarah Horowitz, Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts
at Haverford College Libraries, will also join us
to discuss the Haverford College copy of De revolutionibus.


DAS member, Deepak Bhimalli, will lead the meeting.


The book is available to borrow via the
Delaware Libraries  and the Chester County Library System. The book may be available at archive.org

 

   

Alison Klesman

Thursday, December 14, 2023
7  PM (ET)
Via ZOOM

December Issue
Astronomy Magazine

Alison Klesman, Senior Editor of Astronomy Magazine, will be joining us for our discussion. This is the 50th year of the magazine, founded in 1973 by  the astronomy and journalism student, Stephen A. Walther.

50th anniversary: The origins of Astronomy magazine

 

DAS Board member, Bob Trebilcock, will lead the meeting

 

The magazine is available at the Mt Cuba Observatory Library.


first issue Aug 1973


50th anniversary Aug 2023

   

 

 

Meeting Archive

 

 

2022

 

Jo Marchant

Thursday, January 27, 2022
5PM EST
and
7PM EST
ZOOM

The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars
by Jo Marchant


Kathy Koons will lead the meeting

Jo Marchant will be joining us from the United Kingdom

Please note: To accommodate both Jo Marchant (GMT time zone) and book club members schedules there are two meetings: a 5PM discussion with the author, and a 7PM regular book discussion (sorry, Jo Marchant cannot attend the 7PM meeting).


 

   

David  Kaiser

Thursday, February 24, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

How The Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
by David Kaiser

Beth Trebilcock will lead the meeting

Dave Kaiser will be joining us

   


Donovan Moore


Dr Cecilia Gaposchkin

 

Thursday,  March 31, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
by Donovan Moore

Jim Kerschen will lead the meeting

Donovan Moore will join us and we will also be
joined by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin’s granddaughter, Dr Cecilia Gaposchkin

 

 

   
 

Thursday,  April 28, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

The Apollo Murders
By Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut


To commemorate  the 50th anniversary of Apollo Missions 16 and 17

Matt Bobrowsky will lead the meeting

   

Timothy Ferris

Thursday,  May 26, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

Seeing in the Dark: How Amateur Astronomers Are Discovering the Wonder
by Timothy Ferris

Professor Ferris will be joining us

Robert Stack will lead the meeting

   


John Brashear


Bart Fried

Thursday,  June 30, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

Autobiography of John Brashear

by John Brashear

Bart Fried of the Antique Telescope Society will lead
the meeting.
He is writing a biography of John Brashear
and is the leading expert in Brashear’s life and work.

   
 

 

Thursday, July 28 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM
 

A Memory Called Empire
by Arkady Martine

A 2020 winner of the sci-fi Hugo award


(read a review of the book)


(Arkady Martine Interview - YouTube)


Marie Breton will lead the meeting

   


Lynn King
as Caroline


Steve Ruskin


Titus Grenyer
 

Thursday,  August 25, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM
 

Discoverers of the Universe, William and Caroline Herschel
by Michael Hoskin


William Herschel  biography to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death

Lynn King, Caroline Herschel reenactor and DAS and Rittenhouse Astronomical Society member, will lead the meeting. Steve Ruskin (who joined us last year when we discussed his book America's First Great Eclipse) will also be joining us. Titus Grenyer, a young Australian organist and conductor, has also agreed to join us to discuss Herschel as a musician and play a bit of Herschel's music.

   

David Rooney

Thursday,  September 29, 2022
2PM EST
via ZOOM


About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks
by David Rooney

David Rooney will be joining us via ZOOM from Greenwich, England
 
 
Jim Barkley will lead the meeting

   

Saturday,  October 1, 2022
7PM
Via ZOOM

Moon! Earth's Best Friend

by

Stacy MacAnulty


DAS, Children's Librarian, Amy Hornberger, will read the book aloud. Children will be invited to submit paintings and drawings of the Moon to the DAS for posting to an online gallery. Email  Miss Amy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to receive the ZOOM link.

   

Nicholas de Monchaux

Thursday,  October 27, 2022
7PM
Via ZOOM

Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo
by Nicholas de Monchaux

Nicholas de Monchaux is from MIT, where he serves as the head of the Architecture Department.

Chris Trunk of the Chester County Astronomical Society will lead the meeting.

Chris writes---

The book was published in 2011 and is an excellent read. The book covers a wide range of topics that influenced the creation of the Spacesuit. The included photos are very helpful and really bring the story to life. The book's author did an excellent job researching the subject, and he includes links to all the sources used.

The spacesuits that were manufactured (and are still being manufactured) are made by a Delaware corporation; ILC Dover. The seamstresses that made the Apollo moon spacesuits came from our region, SE PA and Delaware and worked for Playtex prior to being chosen to join the team that made the spacesuits.

   
 

Wednesday,  November 2, 2022
7:15 PM
Via ZOOM

A conversation with Nicholas de Monchaux
author of
Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo

Nicholas could not make our regular meeting so he will be joining us via ZOOM from MIT in Cambridge where he serves as the head of the Architecture Department.

 
   

 

 

 

  Friday, November 11, 2022
7 PM - 7:30 PM
Via ZOOM

Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing
by Dean Robbins

The Delaware Astronomical Society Library cordially invites Delaware Children and their families to attend a Free ZOOM reading event to celebrate the upcoming NASA Artemis Mission to the Moon

  With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.



A DAS Children's Librarian will read the book aloud.

Children will be invited to submit paintings and drawings of the Moon to the DAS for posting to an online gallery.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to register and receive the ZOOM link

 

 

 

   


Professor Mark Walker PhD


Margrethe Bohr and Niels Bohr

 

 

Thursday, November 17, 2022
7PM EST
Via ZOOM

Copenhagen
a play by Michael Frayn


To mark the 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr's Nobel Prize Award.

Professor Mark Walker PhD, Chair of the History Department at Union College, will join our discussion.

Professor Walker, "researches and publishes on twentieth-century science, including in particular science and technology under National Socialism, and comparisons of science and technology in different political, cultural, and ideological contexts. He teaches modern European history, with special emphasis on modern German history and the history of ideas, the history of science and technology, with special emphasis on nuclear history, human evolution, and the interaction of science and technology with politics and ideology, and “Big History,” from the origin of the Universe to the present."

   
 

 

 

Thursday,  December 15, 2022
7PM EST
via ZOOM


Public Astronomy Los Angeles Style
by David DeVorkin and E.C. Krupp

 

 

2021

January
Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different
by Philip Ball

February
Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science
by Robyn Arianrhod


(Robyn Arianrhod joined the meeting via Zoom  to discuss her book)

March
America's First Great Eclipse: How Scientists, Tourists, and the Rocky Mountain Eclipse of 1878 Changed Astronomy 
by Steve Ruskin


(Steve Ruskin joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss his book)

April
Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
by Avi Loeb


(Avi Loeb joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss his book)

May
E=mc2:  A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation
by David Bodanis

June
The Sun's Heartbeat
By  Bob Berman

July
The Wright Brothers
by David McCullough


(Nick Engler, Director of the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co., joined us to discuss everything Wright Brothers including building and flying replicas of Wright Flyer airplanes)

August
The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe
by Thomas Levenson


(Thomas Levenson joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss his book)

September
The Three-Body Problem
by Cixin Liu

October
Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe
by George Johnson


(George Johnson joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss his book)

December
The Science of Shakespeare
by Brian Falk


(Brian Falk joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss his book)

 

 

 

2020

January
Brother Astronomer
by Br. Guy Cosmolagno


(Br. Guy Cosmolagno joined the meeting over Skype to discuss his book)

March
Alvan Clark & Sons: Artists in Optics
by D.J. Warner

July
The Astronaut Wives Club
by Lily Koppel
September
The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
by Christian Davenport

October
Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System
by Natalie Starkey


(Natalie Starkey answered questions about her book over YouTube)

December
Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention
by Kathryn D. Sullivan
   

 

 

2019

 
January
Brief Answers to the Big Questions
by Stephen Hawking
February
Isaac Newton
by James Gleick
March
Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison
by I. Bernard Cohen
April
Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space
by Lynn Sherr
May
Safely to Earth: The Men and Women Who Brought the Astronauts Home
by Jack Clemons

June
The Stargazer’s Sister, a novel
(about Caroline Herschel)
by Carrie Brown

(Carrie Brown joined by Skype and Caroline Herschel, aka historian/reenactor Lynn King, was at the meeting)

July
Moon Rush: The New Space Race
by Leonard David

(Leonard David joined the meeting over Skype to discuss his book)

August
Halley’s Quest
by Julie Wakefield
October
The Calculating Stars
by Mary Robinette Kowal
November
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by Carl Sagan
   

 

 

2018

 
January
Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe
by Mario Livio
February
Kepler's Witch
by James A. Connor
March
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
by Mike Brown
April
A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
May
The Quantum Labyrinth
by Paul Halpern.
July
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
August
Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
September / October
First Man
by James R. Hansen
November
The Martian
by Andy Weir
     

 

 

2017

 
March
Hidden Figures
by Margot Lee Shetterly
April
The Glass Universe
by Dava Sobel
May
Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future
by Jeffrey Bennett
July
Galileo's Daughter
by Dava Sobel
August
Chasing Space
by Leland Melvin
September
The Universe in the Rearview Mirror
by Dave Goldberg
October
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by Dava Sobel
November
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Sat, Jan 28, 2017

   Hello, everyone! Diana Metzger and I have been discussing starting a book club. I would like to invite any of you who are interested to join us. I suggested that we read a mix of non-fiction and (astronomy-related) fiction. We agreed on Hidden Figures as our first book.
                                                                                                      
Amy Hornberger

 

Guests are welcome to all meetings!

If you have questions, want to join the book club,
or want a guest ZOOM pass to any of the meetings,
please email Mary Webb at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 


Hubble, DAS Book Club Mascot

 
 

We have 196 guests and no members online

Search DAS Website

Login Form

Testing
© 2024  Delaware Astronomical Society Website