Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by  Avi Loeb  (Author) 

In late 2017, scientists at a Hawaiian observatory glimpsed an object soaring through our inner solar system, moving so quickly that it could only have come from another star. Avi Loeb, Harvard’s top astronomer, showed it was not an asteroid; it was moving too fast along a strange orbit, and left no trail of gas or debris in its wake. There was only one conceivable explanation: the object was a piece of advanced technology created by a distant alien civilization.
 
In Extraterrestrial, Loeb takes readers inside the thrilling story of the first interstellar visitor to be spotted in our solar system. He outlines his controversial theory and its profound implications: for science, for religion, and for the future of our species and our planet. A mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination, Extraterrestrial challenges readers to aim for the stars—and to think critically about what’s out there, no matter how strange it seems.

ABRAHAM (AVI) LOEB is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where he chairs the astronomy department and directs the Black Hole Initiative. He chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies.

This book will be available at the conclusion of the June 8, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

Who Cares about Particle Physics?: Making Sense of the Higgs Boson, the Large Hadron Collider and CERN by  Pauline Gagnon

CERN, the European Laboratory for particle physics, regularly makes the news. What kind of research happens at this international laboratory and how does it impact people’s daily lives? Why is the discovery of the Higgs boson so important? Particle physics describes all matter found on Earth, in stars and all galaxies but it also tries to go beyond what is known to describe dark matter, a form of matter five times more prevalent than the known, regular matter. How do we know this mysterious dark matter exists and is there a chance it will be discovered soon? About sixty countries contributed to the construction of the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its immense detectors. Dive in to discover how international teams of researchers work together to push scientific knowledge forward.

Here is a book written for every person who wishes to learn a little more about particle physics, without requiring prior scientific knowledge. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of current research in particle physics. A good dose of curiosity is all one will need to discover a whole world that spans from the infinitesimally small and stretches to the infinitely large, and where imminent discoveries could mark the dawn of a huge revolution in the current conception of the material world.    

Pauline Gagnon was born in Quebec, Canada. After teaching physics for a few years in local colleges, she moved to California, where she completed a PhD in particle physics at University of California in Santa Cruz in 1993. She then started doing research at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, and was a senior research scientist at Indiana University until she retired in 2016. Since 2012, Pauline Gagnon has devoted all her time to popular science activities. In her own words, particle physics is too much fun to leave it only to physicists!

This book will be available at the conclusion of the May 11, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos by  Alan Hirshfeld

In the dramatic tradition of the best-selling Longitude, Parallax charts the historical path of observational astronomy’s most daunting challenge: measuring the distance to a star. 

The greatest scientific minds applied themselves in vain to the problem across the millennia, beginning with the ancient Greeks. Not until the nineteenth century would three astronomers, armed with the best telescopes of the age, race to conquer this astronomical Everest—their contest ending in a virtual dead heat. 

Against a sweeping backdrop filled with kidnappings, dramatic rescue, swordplay, madness, and bitter rivalry, Alan Hirshfeld brings to life the heroes of this remarkable story. Meet the destitute boy plucked from a collapsed building who becomes the greatest telescope maker the world has ever seen; the hot-tempered Dane whose nose is lopped off in a duel over mathematics; the merchant’s apprentice forced to choose between the lure of money and his passion for astronomy; and the musician who astounds the world by discovering a new planet from his own backyard. 

Generously illustrated with diagrams, period engravings, and paintings, Parallax is an unforgettable tale that illuminates the distinctly human side of science.

Alan Hirshfeld is Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an Associate of the Harvard College Observatory. He received his undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Princeton University in 1973 and his Ph.D. in astronomy from Yale in 1978. His widely praised book, “Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos,” published in 2002 by Henry Holt & Co., chronicles the human stories involved in the centuries-long quest to measure the first distance to a star. Prof. Hirshfeld has lectured nationwide about scientific history and discovery and is Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the American Astronomical Society’s Historical Astronomy Division. He is a regular science-book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.

This book will be available at the conclusion of the April 13, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story by  Jeffrey Kluger 

Review by Geoff Robertson

Between the one man Mercury, NASA’s first program to send a human into space, and the three man Apollo, which took human to the surface of the Moon and back, there was Gemini, the two seat spacecraft that in ten manned flights demonstrated the techniques and procedures needed to fulfil President Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to land a man on the Moon and return him to the Earth by the end of the 1960’s.      

I am of a certain age that the first book I ever read about Project Gemini came from my schools library in 1964, before the first crew had flown a single orbit. I followed the ten crewed flights between 1965 and 66 religiously, getting up early in the morning to watch launches, following the mission on the news and then waiting for the photo story in Life magazine to arrive in our mailbox after splashdown.    

Jeffery Kluger who co-wrote Lost Moon with Jim Lovell, about the Apollo 13 mission, and was the inspiration for Ron Howards 1995 film, published a new book in 2025 titled Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon. 

In its 271 pages, beginning with a prologue describing the near disastrous EVA during the Gemini 9 mission,  Kluger recounts the early days of the space program and the politics that drove it both in the US but also in the Soviet Union. It gets into the personalities of the day, and the engineering and designs that were considered for the Gemini spacecraft. It delves extensively into a feature that I first saw in that book from the school library back in 1964, the Rogallo Wing, a parasail that would deploy from the spacecraft instead of a parachute allowing Gemini to glide to a landing on dry land on skids extending from the base of the craft. It was found to be too complicated and parachutes were used for an ocean landing. 

Recounting the actual missions of each of the ten manned flights does not begin until more than halfway through the book. It covers each mission fairly well, noting the highlights and some of the lesser known incidents of the missions. The chapters on Gemini 6/7 and Gemini 8 were very interesting to me, although I did note something Kluger’s editor missed. After Gemini Eight made and emergency landing south of Japan, it mentioned when the recovery ship reached the spacecraft and secured it, the crew opened their hatches and “breathed in the cool Atlantic air”.  

The epilogue begins with the Apollo 1 fire and ends with the Moon landing.    

I’ve read many books about the space program as well as astronaut biography’s. There was some things in this book I had not run across before but not a lot. Still it’s an enjoyable quick read. For someone not familiar with the Gemini program and or the first decade of the space age, I highly recommend it.               

Jeffrey Kluger is Editor at Large at Time, where he has written more than 45 cover stories. Coauthor of Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which was the basis for the movie Apollo 13, he is also the author of 13 other books including his latest book Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story.

This book will be available at the conclusion of the March 9, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

The Lamplighter Memorial Library has a new online catalogue! 

Visit the library page to view it.

The 100 Best Astrophotography Targets: A Monthly Guide for CCD Imaging with Amateur Telescopes by  Ruben Kier  

Astronomical observing and photography are favorite pastimes of yours. You want to combine the two, but you’re not sure how. Or perhaps you have dabbled in astronomy for a while and want to take another step.What do you photograph? Will something that looks amazing as you peer at it through a telescope look the same in a photograph? There are so many dazzling sights in the night sky. How to choose?Ruben Kier has some answers for you. With his technical expertise and wide experience as both a visual observer and a photographer, he can help you attain some of the best images you can imagine, perhaps ones you will want to send to a magazine or proudly put up on your website. And the secret is – it’s not that hard! It’s mostly a matter of choosing the right subjects and then doing the necessary post-processing to get results that will dazzle.So get out there on the next clear night and create something to show for your efforts. Your friends will be impressed, and you will be thrilled at how you are able to combine the two passions of your life into one.

This book will be available at the conclusion of the February 9, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

The Stars: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Cosmos

Expand your horizons and take in the awesome sights of the Universe. 

Using stunning space photography and easy-to-understand infographics, The Stars takes you to scores of galaxy clusters fantastically far away.

Since the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, there are now hundreds of billions of stars, 200 billion alone in our home galaxy – the Milky Way. The Stars details 88 constellations to be found in the night sky, including Ursa Major, which contains the seven stars that make up the Plough, as well as Hercules, Lyra, Orion, and far away Andromeda. It explains how they came into being, where they are situated, and their key features. 

Feast your eyes on glowing galaxies, and rare sights such as dust clouds in the Carina and Ring Nebulae, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Stars also provides an endless parade of mind-blowing facts such as when Betelgeuse explodes, it will release more energy in an instant that the Sun produces in its entire lifetime!

This book will be available at the conclusion of the January 12, 2026 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.

The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light  by  Paul Bogard

A starry night is one of nature’s most magical wonders. Yet in our artificially lit world, three-quarters of Americans’ eyes never switch to night vision and most of us no longer experience true darkness. In The End of Night, Paul Bogard restores our awareness of the spectacularly primal, wildly dark night sky and how it has influenced the human experience across everything from science to art. 

From Las Vegas’ Luxor Beam — the brightest single spot on this planet — to nights so starlit the sky looks like snow, Bogard blends personal narrative, natural history, science, and history to shed light on the importance of darkness — what we’ve lost, what we still have, and what we might regain — and the simple ways we can reduce the brightness of our nights tonight.

Paul Bogard is the author of The End of Night and the editor of the anthology Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark. His writing and commentary on the natural world have appeared in the Los Angeles Timesand on Slate, Salon, and All Things Considered. He teaches creative nonfiction at James Madison University and lives in Virginia and Minnesota.

This book will be available at the conclusion of the December 8, 2025 RASC meeting.  The Lamplighter Library is just off the main entrance to the Zeidler Dome and is open before and after our meetings.