Time to get quizzical with Astroquizzal!

Astroquzzical is an interesting book which takes you on a cosmic journey through space and time to discover how the earth, planets and stars came to be. Are we the only known life form out here in space? Or, is there life yet to be discovered beyond our human comprehension?

I’m not a space nerd and thought this read would be a little heavy going and science heavy for me. But, it was pleasing to see Jillian Scudder writes in a very plain english way. Which is handy when you’re trying to get your head around some of life’s big questions and the enormous billion-year timelines of our planet.

What does Astroquizzical teach?

There were a couple of facts about the moon and stars I had no idea about. For example; when you look up to the night sky and see stars ‘twinkling’, it is not the stars themselves. It’s actually the effect of our atmosphere on them. I had no clue, and for some reason always thought the stars were twinkling away at us. I also learnt about the importance of the moon when it came to gravitational pull, phases and the tides of the oceans.

There are some truly amazing photos and diagrams to pour over in the pages and I loved seeing some of the old space images from the 1960’s. Along with these images there interesting topics such as constellations, white dwarfs and even the demise of our planet (don’t worry, you won’t be around for it).

Astroquizzical is a good all-round non fiction book. I got a lot out of it and didn’t feel intimidated by some of the larger topics up for discussion. If you’re a rocket scientist with qualifications about astrophysics under your belt, you may find Astroquizzical a basic and dumbed down. But, for me, the balance was just right and I enjoyed thumbing through the book.