UP IN THE BLUE SKY

Vertically oriented pictures presented in a long rectangular volume hint at just how high the sky goes.

Starting at ground level—or actually below, with ants preparing to fly up into their annual mating dance—the visual ascent proceeds by page turns in succession through each atmospheric level from troposphere to the exosphere, otherwise known as outer space. A metric scale running up one edge (with English equivalents in parentheses) tracks the height in gradually increasing units. Against the slowly darkening backgrounds, Zaffaroni places at plausible levels a host of labeled plants, airborne animals, record-holding aeronauts and flying vehicles, atmospheric phenomena, meteors, spacecraft, and, finally, Voyager I—at over 14 billion miles away and counting, our most distant artifact. A visual index makes all of these images easy to locate. Translated from Italian, Accinelli’s running commentary is printed in white, which can be hard to read on lighter-colored spreads, and his count of artificial satellites is out of date. Still, the extended page count and very tall format convey a sense of distance more effectively than most other works, even those of far broader scope like Kees Boeke’s classic Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps (1957).

Rich in visual surprises and insights.