J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 107, 2, 1997, p.94
Dorling Kindersley, 1996. ISBN 0-7513-1537-0 (PC), 0-7513-1543-5 (Mac). £39.95, widely available at £25.00.
Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-268503-1. £49.95.
(Multimedia CD-ROMs for Windows and Macintosh.)
reviewed by Michael J. Carson–Rowland
Anyone who has looked at Microsoft's Encarta will know the fascination of browsing through a multimedia CD-ROM. Start up Space and the Universe and you'll discover that Dorling Kindersley have taken things even further. It's a bit difficult to know where to start with something like this. The opening screen appears to offer a jumbled choice, but once you've got used to it, things fall into place. Click on Star Dome, and there's a quick audio-visual of an observatory dome opening and you're presented with a control panel. Today is 1997 February 1, so I set the date and time and then hit Search. Is Hale–Bopp visible? The dome swings round and a label flashes on and off showing the location in the sky. What's that bright star just below and left? Move the mouse pointer over it and you find it's Altair. Double-click on Hale–Bopp, and up come the rising and setting times, magnitude, position and distance. What's more, the statistics are updated. Change the date to February 5, and you'll see that it's moved 12 million km nearer, and sets 8 minutes later. A random check against the BAA Handbook indicates a good degree of accuracy. Want to keep the info? Lurking on the left of the screen is an Options button, disguised as a clock; click on it and you can print or copy the information.
Clicking the microphone symbol on any page will give a narration in clear English (as distinct from American; well done, Dorling Kindersley and no offence intended). Look out for other icons indicating video (there are 28 clips) or animation (nearly 50). Listen to the first Sputnik in 1957 or John Glenn (the first American to orbit the Earth) exclaiming over the view as he attains zero G in 1962. Watch original footage of the Apollo 11 liftoff in 1969, and see the 'giant leap' sequence when man first set foot on the Moon. To those of us who witnessed these momentous events in history, it's a little difficult to remember that there is an entire generation who didn't. Now they can.
There's a multiple choice type Quiz and if you don't know the answer to a question the Find Out button will lead you to it. Clicking a small globe on the screen brings up a useful list of Internet addresses. On any page, clicking Next moves in a logical progression: if you want to review something, the Backtrack icon on the right of the screen holds a list of all pages visited in the current session.
I am very impressed with this product: whilst the information on some topics may be rather sketchy (but it often is in a 'conventional' volume) the overall content is first-class and the total amount of information is, well, astronomical! It will have wide appeal and Dorling Kindersley are to be congratulated.
After Space and the Universe, I was filled with anticipation by The Challenge of the Universe, and what promised to be an in-depth explanation of many of the terms and concepts just encountered. It certainly is a challenge, but not the one that the publishers intended: you are quite likely to click an option and have an error message appear. The fact that it is a programming message relating in many cases to 'script errors' is unforgivable. Quite simply, if I had been guilty of producing something like this, even for 'in-house' consumption, I would probably have been fired. The box states that there are over three hours of videos and animations. Much of this is footage of lecturers lecturing so isn't much use. To be fair, there is some good red meat in here. But you have to grit your teeth and be very determined to find it.
I thought perhaps it was me. So I let my younger son, who recently gained a First in Engineering at Cambridge, and a friend who is the Head of Physics in a large and well-respected school in Nottingham have a look at it; it isn't just me. I contacted the support people at OUP to see if by any chance I had a pre-release version; I hadn't. They promised to look into the difficulties and return to me; I'm still waiting. I cannot therefore recommend that anyone spends 50 pounds on a product that will, in all probability, fail on first usage.
Return to Journal 1997 April contents page