GALAXIES: INSIDE THE UNIVERSE S STAR CITIES
by David J. Eicher (Wildfire £25)
Space, the final frontier. As a big fan of space, I always assumed it was rather black up there, with nothing very much to see. But these amazing photos show the universe as a riot of colour and exceptional beauty. The sheer numbers take the breath away: trillions of stars, billions of galaxies, the distances vast and unbreachable.
Eicher, who is editor-in-chief of Astronomy magazine, writes wonderfully well about all this, supplying a wealth of information. I had no idea, for instance, that the black hole at the centre of our galaxy is 4.3 million times the size of our Sun. Probably worth steering clear of, then.