Well, I know it must be awfully cloudy, because here I am posting a book
recommendation. I just finished "The Big Splat: Or How Our Moon Came to Be"
by Dana Mackenzie. It's a book about the 'Giant Impact' hypothesis for the
formation of the moon. I thought that it was pretty good. It goes through
the history of theories about the moon's nature and origin, and winds up
summarizing the giant impact hypothesis and why it has gained so much
popularity so quickly. A fairly quick read, and an engaging one, IMO.
Another good astro book that I recently read is Lifting Titan's Veil by
Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton. It's a detailed pre-Cassini summary of
everything we know about Titan, written for a general audience. I was
already waiting anxiously for the Cassini/Huygens Saturn encounter, now I'm
even more stoked.
There is no frigate like a book to take one lands away, but some clear
skies sure wouldn't hurt, either...
--- Marek Cichanski