The Cambridge illustrated history of astronomy Book

What I love about histories of science are the presentation of the process of the gradual shift in world view (and cosmological view), based upon the combination of facts accumulating and theories developing to explain those facts.

Astronomy is a fascinating topic. This illustrated history is excellent. One thing that intrigues me is the engineering of the instruments of precision necessary for this science to progress.

Although much has happened in the past 30 years or so, the history before that was a litany of revelation, a falling from the eyes of the scales of ignorance about the true nature of the universe.

While in the past 100 years atomic physics and relativity have added a lot to the conceptual tools available to people theorising about, and trying to build explanatory power in what they observe re: the universe, it is still surprising, that will all the intellectual sophistication and high powered precision technology, some of the ultimate questions of where the universe came from are really no closer to a definitive answer. Yes there is the dominant big bang theory - which I think is now (25 years later), much more well supported, but philosophical questions about 'the beginning' are still mysterious.

"The whole universe was in a hot dense state..."

I always thought flat-earther's must be cynical-sarcastic-ironic, but there really is no need for that. Reality is so complex, vast and interesting, the psychological gain from a mocking conspiracy theory pales in comparison to the difficult, yet rewarding work of understanding WHY the dominant mainstream view believes specific things about the cosmos.

I'm sure there must be more contemporary textbooks on this topic, and multitudes of online resources, which this has inspired me to investigate more. But with a good range of images on every page, and rigorous historic research, this book still has a lot to offer.