Lost Stars

Rating:
Summary: Filled from cover to cover with charts and catalogues
Review: Lost Stars by Morton Wagman (Professor of History, Kingsborough Community College - CUNY) informatively explores a fascinating aspect of astronomical history. The first modern star atlas and catalog, Uranometria, was published in 1603 by Johannes Bayer; yet in subsequent entries, Bayer's meticulous method of cataloguing became forgotten or garbled, and many of the stars he labeled were "lost", forgotten, or misplaced. Lost Stars is an exhaustive effort to reconstruct the information concerning troublesome and easy-to-overlook stars from the pioneering catalogs of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and other early astronomers. Filled from cover to cover with charts and catalogues, as well as profusion of historical notes especially pertaining to famous constellations, Lost Stars is a unique and seminal body of academically sound work which will be especially appreciated by amateur and professional astronomers alike. No professional or academic History of Astronomy collection can be considered complete without the inclusion of Morton Wagman's Lost Stars.