Seven Wonders of the Cosmos

The title Seven wonders of the Cosmos suggested to be that this would be a 'coffee table book' - that is a book which showed off some impressive astronomical objects without going into the theory. However, that is not what I found - the book does contain quite a bit of astrophysics. Narlikar's presentation skilfully makes this accessible to the novice (I felt that it was less suited to those with some experience in the subject), hence the book seems best suited to those who have developed an interest in astronomy and want to find out more about it, without going too much into the technicalities.

The first chapter looks at what we see from the Earth, and how our view might be different if it were from the Moon. This is followed by a look at the lives of stars, with a chapter on how some end up as supernovae. This leads on to pulsars and so to gravity and black holes. There is a chapter on 'Illusions in space', in particular gravitational lensing. As well as moving outward from the earth, the book moves in a roughly historical way, starting with the knowledge of the ancients and progressing to recent results. It finishes with a look at cosmology, with some of Narlikar's own ideas on the nature of the universe.