Teleskope, Raketen, Gestirne.

A popular survey in three parts—telescopes, rockets and stars—by Werner Büdeler, issued as Volume IV of Verlag Paul Müller’s general-interest series Die Welt von Heute. Illustrations and jacket were by Fritz Irmhof. The frontispiece epigraph is Raymond B. Fosdick’s remark at the dedication of the Palomar Observatory.

Teleskope (pp. 7–123) tours the great observatories and the astronomy done with them, from Mount Wilson to the Palomar giant. Raketen (pp. 125–183) opens with a look behind the scenes and an interview, then covers rockets at the threshold of space, the recoil principle, a visit to a rocket test field, a conversation with a skeptic, artificial satellites, the human factor, the cold of space, navigation between the stars and atomic propulsion. Gestirne (from p. 185) turns to life elsewhere in the universe, the Moon and the planets.

This copy is a book-club issue: a pasted label on the front endpaper reads “Sonderausgabe” (special edition) for Freunde der Weltliteratur, Lesergemeinschaft GmbH, Hamburg, Bielefeld and Stuttgart. The yellow cloth boards are lettered in black; there is no dust jacket.