In the original dustsheet. Navy cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

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                             A First Edition of the 21st Century

‘Richard Panek’s eye-popping book – brief enough to be gobbled at one sitting, rich enough to re-open immediately – is a story of ever-expanding horizons.’ Guardian.

In 1609, Galileo fitted two lenses inside a cylindrical tube, aimed the tube at the sky, and forever changed the world.

Seeing and Believing tells the story, discovery by discovery, of the telescope, one of the few inventions that have revolutionised our view of the universe and how we fit into it. From Galileo himself to William Herschel who discovered Uranus, to George Ellery Hale who found both Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar observatories. Most fascinating is the character of the telescope itself, which designed solely to help us determine our place in the scheme of things, is an evolving metaphor for how we see ourselves.Richard Panek brings us an engaging and spirited chronicle of the humbling journey that has made humans smaller and the universe infinitely vaster than we ever imagined.