Eastern Astrolabes: Historic Scientific Instruments of the Adler Planetarium (Volume II)

I love astrolabes and was glad to see the price come down a bit making it within my budget!! A terrific book with lots and lots of pictures, historical and technical information! Recommended!

Many many photographs, both assembled and taken apart so that you can see the details. Really lovely book.

Eastern Astrolabes is the second volume of a series describing the Historic Scientific Instruments of the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago. It has come out more than 10 years after the first volume on Western Astrolabes. This book can be compared with "Astrolabes at Greenwich" of the volumes describing the collection of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich UK. This volume has however much less interesting general information, the best section is the short Introduction on the "Oriental" Astrolabe. The description of the Astrolabes is in contrary to volume one very detailed with a large amount of photo's. The word "Fake" is now often mentioned, there are two "Imperfect" Astrolabes described and eleven! "Fake" Astrolabes. Also other instruments are given such as Quadrants, Qibla Indicators, Sundials, Levels and Globes. If you are interested in Eastern Astrolabes, the description of the collection is by far the best part of the book.

Wonderful, fully informative and details have given me a chance to extend my understanding of their workings and use and the skill behind their making and uses, really interesting.

Ottimo libro che tratta degli astrolabi e della loro storia, interessante per chi è appassionato di astronomia e della sua storia. Suggerisco di comprare anche l'altro volume Western Astrolabes.