BOOK REVIEWS

J. Mayo Greenberg, The Cosmic Dust Connection, NATO ASI series: C 487,Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 560 pp., 1996, Dfl.450.00/USD 297.00/GBP 185.00, ISBN 0–7923–4365–4.

This volume contains the proceedings of a Nato Advanced Study Institute, heldin Erice, Sicily, in June 1994. The contributions span a broad range of topics inthe physics of cosmic dust grains – their composition, formation and evolution,together with their optical properties and spectroscopic signatures. Coverage isgiven in roughly equal measure to both interstellar and solar system dust, includingthe light that the study of each can shed on the other. Observational, theoretical andlaboratory studies are presented, with many pieces achieving a pleasing synthesisof the three.

The contributions include both extensive reviews and short reports on work inprogress. The reviews will prove a valuable resource for researchers in adjacentfields, as well as for postgraduate students, although on some controversial topicsnot all points of view are equally represented. The shorter contributions are lessuseful in this respect, especially given the extreme tardiness of publication (2 1

2 yearsafter the event), but will act as pointers as to where to begin a literature search.

The pricing of the volume will deter all but the wealthiest researcher from acquir-ing a personal copy, but those involved in research on any aspect of interstellar orinterplanetary dust would find it a welcome addition to their departmental library.

Instituto de Astronomı́a UNAM, Unidad Morelia, WILLIAM HENNEY

Mexico

E. Kontizas, M. Kontizas, D. H. Morgan, and G. P. Vettolani (eds.), Wide-FieldSpectroscopy, Proceedings of the 2nd Conference of the Working Group ofIAU Commission 9 on ‘Wide-Field Imaging’, held in Athens, Greece, May20—25, 1996, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Vol. 212, Kluwer Aca-demic Publishers, Dordrecht, XXV+405 pp., 1997, hardbound NLG 295.00/USD182.00/GBP 110.00, ISBN 0–7923–4518–5.

The preface to these proceedings states that they give a ‘spherical view’, a nicedescription of what is indeed a mixed bag. Wide-field spectroscopy is at thethreshold of a new age, combining over a dozen 8 m-class telescopes with fieldreformatters using thousands of fibers for spectroscopic surveys that dwarf all pre-vious efforts. The first part of the book describes the techniques, starting with an

Space Science Reviews 82: 467–474, 1997.c 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in Belgium.