THROUGH THE TELESCOPE

There seems to be an influx of popular books on astronomy for the layman. This has the same general plan, with the telescope and its limitations in lay hands, as a point of departure. And with occasional flights of fancy into what would happen if we played baseball on the Moon or Mars or Saturn, or what have you. For the most part, however, the author sticks to straight facts, how and when they were discovered, and what -- from the layman's angle -- they mean. Not a book that serves as a handbook to the uninitiated, but that would help clarify points raised by -- for instance, a visit to a Planetarium, or an interest in watching the stars through a telescope.