H.A. Rey and The Stars

You owe H.A. Rey. If you passed an astronomy test on constellations any time since 1960, chances are you passed because this author/illustrator (best known for the original Curious George books) wrote The Stars, A New Way to See Them.

I heard of the book listening to Science Friday. I grew up on Curious George and love when art meets science, so I did a quick search in our local library system. Royal Oak and Ferndale didn’t have it, but thanks to inter-library loan I got my hands on it late last week.

When I first looked at his redrawing of each constellation (Figure 4) I thought, “Oh, this is how I learned the constellations. He must have popularized this.”

But I was wrong. He made it up.

It’s a great intro to stargazing; mostly practical, non-technical guides to recognizing the constellations. The end of the book has some technical details regarding astronomy but leaves out most of the math. He’s quoted in the book jacket, “What surprises me is that nobody has done it before.” Indeed.

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  Hey Seth!!! Great blog, great site, so impressed. I stumbled upon it while doing some research. Glad you are doing so well! Good to see your mustache face. Hope you and Molly are doing great. Grace and Peace – Jen Rozman (Kayser)

  Commenter   |   07.20.10