Every place is a product of the stories we tell about it—stories that do not merely describe but in fact shape geographic, social, and cultural spaces. Lone Star Vistas analyzes travelogues that created the idea of Texas. Focusing on the forty-year period between Mexico’s independence from Spain (1821) and the beginning of the US Civil War, Astrid Haas explores accounts by Anglo-American, Mexican, and German authors—members of the region’s three major settler populations—who recorded their journeys through Texas. They were missionaries, scientists, journalists, emigrants, emigration agents, and military officers and their spouses. They all contributed to the public image of Texas and to debates about the future of the region during a time of political and social transformation. Drawing on sources and scholarship in English, Spanish, and German, Lone Star Vistas is the first comparative study of transnational travel writing on Texas. Haas illuminates continuities and differences across the global encounter with Texas, while also highlighting how individual writers’ particular backgrounds affected their views on nature, white settlement, military engagement, Indigenous resistance, African American slavery, and Christian mission.

Are we alone? In 1995 planet hunters discovered the first alien solar system around a star like our own Sun. Ken Croswell tells the fascinating story of this discovery and the people who made it, then explores the possibility that one day we may have the technology to travel to different solar systems and find life.

The Astrophotography Manual is for those photographers who aspire to move beyond using standard SLR cameras and editing software, and who are ready to create beautiful images of nebulas, galaxies, clusters, and the solar system. Beginning with a brief astronomy primer, this book takes readers through the full astrophotography process, from choosing and using equipment through image capture, calibration, and processing. This combination of technical background information and the hands-on approach brings the science down to earth with a practical method to plan for success. Features include: Over 400 images, graphs, and tables to illustrate these concepts A wide range of hardware to be used, including smartphones, tablets, and the latest mount technologies How to utilize a variety of leading software such as Maxim DL, Nebulosity, Sequence Generator Pro, Photoshop, and PixInsight Case studies showing how and when to use certain tools and overcoming technical challenges How sensor performance and light pollution relate to image quality and exposure planning

Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil leaves Earth and accepts a position as a physician at Kevarzanga-2's FreeClinic. Her surgical skills are desperately needed on a hostile frontier world with over 200 sentient species—and her understanding of alien physiology is nothing short of miraculous. But the truth behind her expertise is a secret which, if discovered, could have disastrous consequences between human and alien relations.