Clipper, Cosmos, and Children:
  Finding the Eureka Moment
David H. Levy
117 pages
$23 (paperback)
Published 2023

David H. Levy was a featured guest speaker at the "Earth Day & International Dark Sky Week Celebration" at Oracle State Park, Arizona, on 22 April 2023. He spoke about his new book, Clipper, Cosmos, and Children: Finding the Eureka Moment. I purchased a copy, which David autographed.

As David says in the Preface of Clipper, Cosmos, and Children, this book "is the story of how a magic beagle and telescope gather with a group of three children and lead them on a tour through the cosmos". The backstory of how this book came to be was fascinating to read (I also had a beagle when I was a child). David wrote Clipper, Cosmos, and Children to inspire parents and their children to love the night sky as David does.

Table of Contents:

Preface.
  Chapter 1: A Beagle, Moon, and Star.
  Chapter 2: Building a Space Transit System.
Part I: Our Sun and the Worlds around it.
  Chapter 3: Can Anybody Live on Mars?
  Chapter 4: Gigantic Jupiter.
  Chapter 5: The Saturn 500.
  Chapter 6: Into the Cavernous Dark.
  Chapter 7: Voyage to a Comet.
  Chapter 8: Our Mr. Sun.
Part II: The Story of the Stars above Us.
  Chapter 9: A Nearby Trio of Suns.
  Chapter 10: Double Stars, Triple Stars, and Clusters of Stars.
  Chapter 11: Out the Galaxy's Window.
  Chapter 12: Onward and Outward: The Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda.
  Chapter 13: Onward, Upwards, and Outward: To the Limits of Space and Time.
  Chapter 14: Nothings if Darkness.
  Chapter 15: A Magic Beagle Lives Forever.
Appendix A: Notes on the Characters.
Appendix B: December 17, 1965.
About the Author.

Each chapter takes the children on a guided tour, given by Clipper the Beagle, of sights in the Universe using a telescope. The children learned something about each thing they saw and were obviously thrilled by their experiences. Reading the book I remembered experiencing the same thrills when I was learning the night sky as a child.

The book has some wonderful illustrations, done by Joan Ellen Rosenthal, that will remind many readers of the crayon drawings they did as children or their children's drawings today. I'm glad these were in the book.

There is science in the book, but it will not overwhelm young readers or their parents. The science presented adds to the enjoyment that everyone will experience as they learn about the Universe.

Summary

Clipper, Cosmos, and Children is a book that will inspire anyone of any age to learn a little something about our Universe and to get excited each night they get to be under a star-filled dark sky. Parents can use each chapter as a "bedtime story" to read to their children. Anyone and everyone will enjoy reading the adventures of Clipper and his friends as they explore our Universe.

---

Comments are welcome using Email. If you are on Twitter you can use the button below to tweet this review to your followers. Thanks.

Tweet

---

Cassiopeia Observatory Home Page