To Know a Starry Night

A truly beautiful book. ‘To Know a Starry Sky’ is a collection of incredibly photography of the night sky, taken in the USA, mostly in national parks. Alongside this is writing about darkness and the sky.

I really enjoyed reading and looking through. Multiple photographs I returned to several times. The night sky is wonderful and how often we take it for granted. It’s a sad thought to think how much we miss these days with light pollution that could be viewed 100 years ago. A book to be looked at over and over again.

I would recommend people go for the physical book as I was viewing this on my e-reader and felt the photography would have been even better on a page.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank the authors and publisher for kindly sharing an electronic review copy of this book.

"To Know a Starry Night" by Paul Bogard and Beau Rogers is a thoughtful literary and artistic tribute to humanity, nature, and, of course, the night sky. This book contains a series of essays by Bogard on the night sky, darkness, light pollution, nature, and relationships. The essays are both philosophical and appreciative of nature. The book is easy to read and identify with since it discusses the environment that surrounds us all. It also evoked a sense of nostalgia in me as I thought back on time I have spend camping and appreciating similar locations described and photographed.. Nearly half of the book is stunningly beautiful night photographs by Rogers. Many of the pictures are from national parks in the Western United States in which the Milky Way is adroitly featured. Each time I turned a page and saw another photograph, I kept hoping that the authors would share their photography tips. I was delighted with the Afterword in which Rogers fulfilled my wish by providing his advise on night photography.

The essays and photographs were both lovely. I recommend this book to people who enjoy nighttime outdoors.

To Know a Starry Night is a collection of night sky photographs presented in the way that they should be: unobstructed by light pollution. The photography is presented alongside commentary about the night sky, with the introduction and first chapter included in this book preview.

As a night sky enthusiast, I found To Know a Starry Night to be a stunning book. There are few things that stack up to the beauty of the night sky that is not drowning in city lights. I enjoyed the writing style as well, with the author's passion for the topic clearly shining through each paragraph of this book preview. I am so thrilled about this book, and I cannot wait to pick up a copy of the full book when it is published.

Thanks to Netgalley and University of Nevada Press for this ARC; this is my honest and voluntary review.

This is a beautiful book. I love the stories that go along with the beautiful photographs. I feel the need to explore more with my own camera! This book speaks to me on many different levels.

To Know a Starry Night is an absolutely stunning book with lyrical writing by Paul Bogard accompanied by dazzling photographs of the night sky by photograoher Beau Rogers. It is fairly short with interconnecting chapters that at times feel like a meditation on the beauty of the night and, at others, an explanation of the science of light pollution, its effects on how we see and relate to night, and how much we have lost because of it. Bogard also speaks of his childhood viewing stars with his father, his travels to the very few places left where it is still possible to view a sky full of stars and his efforts to ensure his daughter knows that beauty that is so rarely see by most of us. This is a quietly lovely book and I recommend it highly.

<i>Thanks to Negalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

To Know a Starry Night is a lovely photography book with images of night skies, mostly in the American West and with accompanying ruminative text about stars, nighttime, skies, and the place they've held in the author's journey. Included are some quotes from poets, laments of light pollution, and anecdotes. This would be a lovely coffee table book.

This is a beautiful book full of breathtaking photos of the night sky. But that’s not all. The text conveys what it’s like to experience the night through the author’s personal experiences. It also highlights light pollution and the importance of preserving places where we can get in touch with the night sky and see the amazing beauty it holds.

The astrophotography is outstanding. The book contains many photos of the Milky Way taken in national parks in the western part of the United States. It also has night photos of cities, beautiful in their own way, to contrast with the peace of nature.

It would be a great book to keep on your coffee table and look at again and again. Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for my digital copy.

Such an exquisite book! Aside from offering stunning photos of night skies from all around the country, the sentiments that Paul Bogard expresses throughout the book are just so touching, thought-provoking, and enjoyable. I have seen two truly dark skies in the Australian Outback and in Namibia and am fortunate enough to live in an area where I see the Milky Way most nights, and as Paul expresses, there really is just something awe inspiring about seeing the Milk Way and the primal night sky. The photos are great in and of themselves, but I truly hope readers take Paul's missives about truly experiencing the night sky as inspiration to seek out the night sky themselves. I've just finished the book and have already texted three friends about this book and would absolutely recommend it to everyone.

This is such a beautiful book! Thought-provoking, lyrical, poetical,philosophical yet educational. I loved how the book talks about light pollutions and the impact it has on the night-time sky gazing and the universe and the things we are missing out when our night skies is polluted with the artificial lights.

Infact, it made me sad when he said about us and the future generations not being able to see the stars and the universe at night anymore as much as those people back in the olden days did where they can easily see the stars and the universe just from their own backyard!, all because of light pollutions!.

The part where the author reminisced about his childhood memories of walking in the woods and the desserts with his father at night to view the night skies, made me reminisced my own childhood memories whereby i would sit outside in my home lawn at night and gaze admiringly at the stars. I'd let my own imaginations take me to somewhere magical where it is just myself and universe and melts away all my sadness and loneliness.

I loved when the author quoted how much the vast universe just takes away our sadness and loneliness by making us think that the universe is bigger than our own problems are!. Also, i still remember how fascinated i am in learning about the planets and the galaxies where i'd go to the school library during recess and read those books on the planets and watch planet documentaries.

I loved how the author also is reminding us on going out at night and spending some quality time with yourself and nature by viewing the night skies and to cherish its beauty while it is still there. Of course, the beautiful and visually stunning night skies photographs are living proofs of this beauty that if not taken care of will diminish. What a big loss would that be for us and the future generations.

To Know a Starry Night is absolutely breathtaking, both in words and photography, and eye-opening in content. The author and photography aims to show the full beauty of the night sky and the sad fact that we are "losing stars" due to light pollution, though many of us don’t even realize what we are missing - the solace of nature and connection to our past, our place in the universe.

This book is just stunningly beautiful to look at and yet educational about a topic most of us may not consider. Highly recommended for everyone, especially those with an interest in astronomy, photography, conservation, and nature.

I am so very grateful to Netgalley and University of Nevada Press for the opportunity to read and review To Know a Starry Night.

As an adult living on the US east coast, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the stars, and I mean decades! The night sky photography here reminds me of my childhood traveling the western US and visiting national parks with my parents. My parents upbringing in the rural Appalachians , animals, sky and mountains berms and mountains and this has rubbed off on me.

This book is the culmination of five contributors’ work. Each shows their love of nature and well-placed concern regarding our stewardship of mother earth.

Karen Travino, a colleague of Paul’s in astro tourism, notes the multi sensory aspects of ecology in her beautiful preface.

Scott Slovic wrote the foreward and connected Paul and Beau. He notes the unifying experience of the sky, an experience leveler, from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s rapturous transcendentalist essays to Ken Lambert’s observations from behind prison bars. As one who sees connections in nature, he does as well in this social sphere, by introducing Paul the writer and Beau the photographer.

This is a stunning coffee table book, full of night sky photography and language that connect us to the sky above and ground below. If you remember starry nights like I do, this book helps keep alive those memories. If you haven’t been out into nature to see the sky, get your hands on this book to see what you have been missing. And if urbanization continues its exponential growth unchecked, this book will document for future generations what we have lost. What we have lost?

This book also describes light pollution, measured by means of the Bortle scale, with photographs from space. Light pollution is an important concept to understand, since much of nature’s life cycles depend on the daily cycles of light and dark to cue their behavior. Which is the most lit up country? Some may jokingly guess Ireland or Russia. Or Jamaica? But of course, the United States tops the list, especially New England, but so does England, France, Italy, as do the cities of Cairo and Dubai.

Paul Bogard’s essays have an autobiographical quality showing us how he bonded with those he loves under the star studded skies. From times shared with his beloved dog to the birth of his daughter, the book is emotionally raw, personal journey as well as educational observations.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my feedback.

There is so much we miss living in cities or where there is a lot of light escaping into the night sky. Having been to some wonderfully dark wild spaces I know what our world is capable of. This was a beautiful book tied in with an excellent narrative from the author.

There is a very strong chance that, if you're my age or younger, you've never seen a truly dark night sky. If you grew up east of the Mississippi River, it's almost a guarantee. The saddest part of that is the sheer, astonishing vastness of stars. The closest I've come to seeing skies like these:
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...was an early 1970s car trip with my oldest sister who was leaving South Texas for California. I went with her and, at more than one point, she stopped the car at night, turned off the car lights, and we stared up at sheerly astoundingly bright skies...not from (in those days) mercury-vapor lights that were common and getting more so on major highways, as we were in the proverbial middle of nowhere, but from stars. Thousands and thousands and thousands of stars, more than I had ever seen before. The night skies I encountered in middle age above Machu Picchu were the only comparably startling revelation to me.
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What made Author Bogard present this book of Photographer Beau Rogers's glorious night-time images to us was his increasing awareness that his own daughter, whose company on these night-time ramblings in the American West he treasured, might not have even these places to see the natural condition of darkness again in her lifetime.

Nothing could possibly be sadder than that!
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What a loss to Humanity the curse of light pollution is...and how necessary it is to protect what there is left of it.

We're simply not paying enough attention to these losses. There's nothing to replace natural darkness. There's little research into the costs of the loss to the natural world...there's next to none on its impact to us, the polluters. What we lose only starts with the aesthetic awareness of the extent of the beauty around us on the planet.
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This absolutely astoundingly gorgeous book is perfect to gift to your photography fan as well as the environmentally aware young person. It's a spectacular creation and worthy of a space on anyone's display shelf, coffee table, or even tablet.

"When I think of the world my daughter will know, I often feel distress. She will never know the natural world that I have known."
Paul Bogard writes poignantly about the diminishing possibilities of and the increasing need for experiencing the night sky. Along with Beau Rogers' gorgeous night sky photography, the nine chapters of this book make a compelling case for getting out under a dark, starry sky whenever possible. I'm sorry I slept on this book for so long. It's lovely and necessary.