Planetfall: New Solar System Visions: New Solar System Visions Hardcover – October 1, 2012

Michael Benson's new photo-essay book about our Solar System is of the same high quality as his two previous masterworks, "Beyond" and "Far Out."His previous work, "Far Out," covered the enormous size and timescape of the entire universe, as it is perceived by us.This time, in "Planetfall," Benson returns home to our own cosmic backyard. He reveals the Solar System to us using the latest images from the most recent generation of planetary explorers, most notably the Cassini Spacecraft's stunning images of Jupiter and Saturn. There are also magnificent images of the Sun (which are the best I have ever seen published in any book), of Mars, and of our own planet Earth and its moon, taken from other space probes.This book concentrates on those newer, deep-space images of the planets (and some of their moons) that many Americans may not have seen yet in other books, and also adds some of the best images from the surface of Mars taken recently by the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. He skips Mercury and Venus, but that did not bother me because there is not much to see there, and this left more room for the stunning images of Jupiter and Saturn, Mars, and the Earth, which are the cornerstone of the book.The book is light on text and heavy on imagery, and I found it just the right balance for this type of "coffee table book." Benson allows us to see our Solar System as we would if we were space voyagers on an interstellar mission, arriving at our solar system without ever having seen it before. The book is first and foremost a visual feast.But the relatively brief essays are still insightful, even poetic, and relate the images in the book to our modern imaginations, fueled by our popular culture and how we were raised on science fiction."Planetfall" is an extremely large format book, larger in size and much wider than even Benson's previous works, "Far Out" and "Beyond." The extra large size of the color plates helps the reader appreciate the majesty of the images. You can mentally immerse yourself in its pages.If you don't have this book and you are a lover of astronomy books, get it. If you already own it, buy it for someone as a Holiday gift, and open their eyes to the stunning beauty of our own solar system. Your sense of wonder will be refreshed and renewed by this wondrous photo essay depicting ourselves, and our immediate neighbors in the cosmos.

This book is worthy of being in your collection of astronomical photography books, because it offers so many super-high-resolution photographs of the planets and the sun. There are no photos of stars (other than our own sun), no nebula or constellations or galaxies... just our own neighboring planets - that is the focus of this particular book. This book offers us the best available collection of the photos that have been taken within the past ten years only. One should bear in mind that some of the greatest astronomic photographs are more than ten years old, and so by definition, they will not be part of this book that covers just the past decade of astronomical planetary photography.I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 stars because I am a bit disappointed that the majority of the pictures are ultra-close-ups on parts of a planet or ring system showing just a very limited range of colors (for example: just black and white and blue.... or just black and white and amber). Also, many of the photos actually don't seem to be extremely high resolution. (Though many others, such as the surface of the sun, or the surface of mars, are strikingly high-resoloution and spectacular). This is not the fault of the author / publisher / compiler... that's just the way it is, and this book catalogs and showcases the past ten years of planetary photography as well as one could possible realistically hope that it would.If you are looking for a book that shows the colorful awesomeness and jaw-dropping beauty of the universe... a book that focusses more on parts of the universe far more distant (star clusters and nebulae) has more "wow" factor than this book. But if you would like a compendium of the best of planetary photography over just the past ten years... you cannot do better than this very well-done volume.

Many of the pictures in this book are breathtakingly beautiful. Totally worth it. My very minor gripes are: First, I wish it was more comprehensive in its coverage of the solar system. There isn't really any coverage of Mercury, Venus, Uranus, or Neptune (or the demoted Pluto), but not many nice pictures of those exist at anywhere on Earth anyway. Also, it sounds like Benson almost intended this book as an addendum to his other solar system book, "Beyond". Maybe there's more comprehensive coverage there. Second, the captions are all in the very back of the book. It's a little frustrating trying to flip through the pictures and read the captions at the same time. Third, many of the Earth photos are of smoke from burning forests. Benson pessimistically focuses on that a little more than I would like.Overall, though, my complaints are very minor. This book is full of stunning photos of the celestial bodies of our solar system. Enjoy them.

This is a very large format book of photographs of the planets of our solar system, taken by various space missions. The photo's of the planet Saturn are especially beautiful and unlike any other photo's I have seen before. A real collectors item!

A great book for the person not too familiar with the "space community" but for someone who is in tune with space exploration and imagery this book failed to impress. Concentrated a little too much on earth, the moon, and mars too. Still a beautiful book.

This is a picture book, period. This is not a science book with nice pictures. It is just the pictures.The pictures, though, are worth the cost of the book. They are really great. Super-detailed.

Within my collection of 30+ NASA/space related coffee table calibre books, this title far exceeds them all which is saying a lot since most of the books I own are phenomenal. Dan Winters' "Last Launch" is another must-own!

Great Job Michael Benson. The photos are absolutely incredible. It is so hard to understand how far away everything is but this book brings them right to the reader. Perfect job placing the photos.

Received today - Just skimmed through an amazaing book - with absolutely stunning photographs.If you are wondering about what the planets of the solar system and their moons, rings and the ateriods look like -this is the book for you.You will be amazed of the quality of the images from Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Those are my favorites, anyway, so could be whyI'm really pleased about those images.A very large book it is - and worth every penny - A tehnological marvel is what those probes and robots have shown us of ourvery near neighbourhood called the Solar System - SO GO AND BUY THIS BOOK - Amazing what you get for about GBP 25.00.Thanks to the author - Michael Benson - for a truly great book!Rene, Copenhagen, Denmark

Excellent book. Recommend it for anyone interested in illustrations of the solar system.

The most amazing book ever. I love it and so does my son for whom I bought it.Mrs. Lucas

Me encanta.Algunas de las fotografías las puedes encontrar a dos y tres páginas ( varios desplegables en su interior)Muy buen detalle la inclusión de hojas protectoras en los despegables, para evitar que las imágenes puedan deteriorarse por la fricción entre ellas.Para los entusiastas de la astronomía y el conocimiento del universo, los textos no aportan nada nuevo. Es un "Coffe Table Book" en toda regla para disfrutar de las fotografías. La edición en este sentido, es correcta, nada del otro mundo, pero la impresión y calidad es la correcta.Recomendable.

It's got cool pictures of space. I like space.