Aug. 31st, 2007

johnridley: (Default)
I've been slacking off for a while, haven't finished many books. Anyway, I listened to an older book on audio this week, and just finished it up.

Ben Bova, _Colony_

Pretty badly dated. Projected massive world hunger and near-complete social breakdown, by 2008, with near-total schisms along race lines, including the 70's ubiquitous "slum cities" where all major population centers have become holes containing only those too poor to get out. It smacks more than a bit of the 70's, which I suppose is not surprising given that it was published in 1978, but a lot of it reads like it was written by someone who had just watched _Shaft_ about 30 times in a row, and maybe _Escape From New York_ as well.

Sex is given a lot of importance in the book. Didn't bother me but it seemed a bit over the top, but I guess in the late 70s maybe it wasn't odd. Reminded me a lot of Heinlein's later work where he must have been contractually obligated to titillate. Doesn't add to the story really, but whatever. There was only one female character with any depth.

Still, given its publish date, decent writing I guess. I haven't read much from the 70s. I've been doing Bova's Planets books for the last few years, so this was a nice break from that. But I think I'll stay away from Bova's earlier stuff for a while.
johnridley: (Astronomy)
It's been over a year since I touched my telescope. This is kind of embarrassing, since it's quite a nice scope and to leave it unused for so long is a shame.

Anyway, I lost my Skytools logs in the drive crash earlier in the year. I still have the ones on the website, but I figured with as long as it's been for some of them, I might as well start over on the Herschel 400 list.

Today's targets: NGCs 7004, 6866 and 6834. I went for a galaxy as well but left it too long and the moon was up, so no chance at all. Even the PN was a little tough with the moon, the neighbor's lights, and the cars driving by.

Eventually the moon forced me in but I expected that. Just for the heck of it I tagged M57, 56, 92 and 13 with the scope, then the double cluster and a few double stars with the binoculars before going in.

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