Overview: A New Perspective of Earth

This is a gorgeous, information-packed book, full of high resolution satellite images that would make astounding wall art. But this is not your average coffee-table book...it's an incredible and unique view of the world. Despite my decades of work in the environmental sciences, this book provided new insights, showing man's ecological, architectural, and terra-forming impacts -- for better and worse -- in ways that I had never seen before. It drove home to me what amazing things humans are capable of, how resilient and resourceful we are, and also how destructive we can be, in ways that even the best environmental writing can't always communicate. The balance between text and photos is perfect: enough to clearly explain each photo, but not so much as to get in the way of the amazing images. The text does not impose a particular point of view on the reader, but you will certainly have opinions as you fly through it. The geographic coordinates for each photo are a wonderful inclusion, too: you can easily use Google Earth to provide even greater context for the photos that intrigue you the most. For those who think or worry or are hopeful about the future of humanity on Planet Earth, this book has tremendous immediacy.

There are actually a lot of high quality coffee table style books now that focus on space related imagery or satellite imagery and that is mainly due to the fact that there are now a LOT of different satellites in orbit taking pictures at all different frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. There are so many now, Its actually hard keeping up with all of them. On top of that, ground based telescopes now have this absolutely brilliant technique called adaptive optics, which is basically where a laser is shot into the atmosphere to measure the amount of atmospheric distortion that is taking place due to the Earth's atmosphere. The end result of this amazing technology is they are basically able to cancel out the atmospheric distortion that is taking place due to the Earth's atmosphere and that basically makes Earth based telescopes SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than they used to be. In fact, some ground based telescopes are now sharper than many of the telescopes orbiting the planet in space. The bottom line is that there are literally TONS of new pictures being taken in space all the time and that has caused a major increase in the number of books released that focus on space related imagery.I am a space junkie and just can't get enough space content, wether it be pictures, documentaries, books, etc. I even take the really high quality image files that NASA makes available to people and I have really beautiful prints made from sites like Zazzle and Society 6. Thankfully all of NASA's pictures are free domain, which means your allowed to have prints made from them. I am also an amateur backyard astronomer and love taking pictures of space. I also purchased a high end solar telescope from Lunt and taking pictures of the sun has become one of my single favorite photographic subjects. I'm a professional photographer and am just a HUGE fan of art in general so anytime I see a new astronomy related art book, I don't hesitate to press the order button. I have an entire bookshelf now that is pretty much dedicated to space related books, many of which are photography related books and there are a LOT of amazing astronomy related photography books on the market. In fact, I really can't think of one that I actually disliked. Some are certainly better than others, but I have never purchased one that I regretted purchasing.Anyways, I recently went to Barnes and Noble with my wife as she always buys a slew of calendars that she gives as presents during Christmas. I wound up wandering into the art/photography section and someone had left this book on one of the chairs that was in that department. I sat down and within just 10-15 pages I was already 100% sold on buying it. IMO, this is one of the most beautiful astronomy related photography books I have seen to date and that is just a HUGE compliment given how many amazing astronomy related photography books I have purchased over the years. The photographer stitches many of these images together from lots of individual pictures. It must take a lot of work, but the results are spectacular in most cases. If your a space junkie like myself or you just enjoy looking at beautiful pictures of the Cosmos, this should be the very next book on your to buy list. Trust me, this is without question one of the most unique and one of the most beautiful astronomy related art books produced to date. And the reasonable MSRP price just makes it that much more of a no brainer. All in all, this is just a brilliant book with absolutely spectacular images in it. A must buy for all space junkies and connoisseurs.5 Stars!!

This book is amazing! I love the chapters the images were categorized in - it really gives you perspective on where we are and the impact we have on this planet. From something as simple as palm oil or aluminum foil that we may buy readily at the local grocery store - it may seem like something small but the production is massive and the earth pays the toll. It made me realize how much we take for granted. And how much there is to discover, too - I really enjoyed the where we are not chapter that showed natural areas that haven't been impacted by humanity. And of course the where we live, play and design chapters are exciting and fun to look at and study - all the intricate details of a city and the artistic layouts of different communities around the world. I've seen other satellite imagery books but this one definitely hit the mark for me. Three Cheers for Overview!

Got this book for our families coffee table in the living room and everyone has been loving it. Pretty damn fascinating photos from above laid out in an organized, aesthetically pleasing fashion. And there were hundreds of these colorful/detailed photos - all of them left us wondering about nature and the complex layouts and architecture of cities/environments. I liked how it included went beyond cities to include so many unique perspective in mother nature. Our planet is truly a work of art - so much variety and wonder. Mad good book. They also have well worded educational explanations by the photos.Def recommend it for everyone who wants a mesmerizing / educational coffee table book - especially anyone who expects company to their home or business. Or as a give for family/friends.

My wife loves coffee table books and this is one of her favorites. It is just really interesting to see the world from a top down view.

An amazing and inspiring book. The book itself is quite the work of art: really good printing job and quality that makes it possible to appreciate the satellite images. Each image is mesmerizing. Ben did a great job at carefully selecting and enhancing the images and organizing them into different themes. Plus, I'm amazed at the amount of research that went into the book: each image is accompanied by a brief description, with interesting facts and figures, so in addition to appreciating the artistic overviews, you'll end up learning about random places of our planet and how we have affected them.

This is an interesting book! I bought used in “very good” condition but the bottom of the spine was ripped and coming apart. The price was $47.98 and the brand new book was $50. so wasn’t expecting a book in this condition for that price.

Lindo livro

... mit unglaublich interessanten Fotos. Sehr empfehlenswert.

This book is amazing. The pictures are beautiful. You can spend hours looking at these photos trying to spot all the small details!

Por un rato (largo) este libro de mesa te permite vivir en un satélite y ojear nuestro planeta desde un punto de vista exclusivo. Maravillas en forma de desiertos, lagos, volcanes, minas, desastres, islas, campos de cultivo y un eterno etcétera. Precioso.