The original purpose of the "Longer View" books is to provide charts and descriptions of the planets' travels in the years ahead. But there is also the three-century human story (replete with controversies and ironies) of how the first "new" planets were discovered, each leading to the next. And there is much to point out about these bodies' characteristics and intricate motions. 80 illustrations, and 73 short chapters, such as "Herschel's oboe and telescope," "Not the predicted planet," "The apple of discord," "Pioneers and Voyagers to the outer giants," "Neptune's circular yet wavy orbit," "Clusters of Uranus events," "Uranus by Moonlight," "Pluto's much-more-than-sidewise rotation," "Grim ferryman," "The Neptune-Pluto standoff," "The Pluto-Charon embrace," "Pluto's painted deserts," "Oligarchs and Plutocrats..".

Explores the relationship between the Sun and the three outer planets of the solar system from the point of view of a planetary scientist, examining the role of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as recorders of the formation of the solar system.

Pluto looms large in Flagstaff, where residents and businesses alike take pride in their community's most enduring claim to fame: Clyde Tombaugh's 1930 discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory. Percival Lowell began searching for his theoretical "Planet X" in 1905, and Tombaugh's "eureka!" experience brought worldwide attention to the city and observatory. Ever since, area scientists have played leading roles in virtually every major Pluto-related discovery, from unknown moons to the existence of an atmosphere and the innovations of the New Horizons spacecraft. Lowell historian Kevin Schindler and astronomer Will Grundy guide you through the story of Pluto from postulation to exploration.

• Explains in detail how the demotion or proved nonexistence of a planet marks the beginning of a roughly 30-year period in which that planet’s influence wanes • Explores Pluto’s arc of influence on individual and collective life in depth, from its discovery in 1930 to the end of its influence in 2036 • Offers examples from other demoted planets, such as Ceres, whose fifty-year reign as a planet corresponds very closely to the Romantic Era of history Recent research in astrology has shown that the discovery of a new planet correlates with the emergence of a new set of influences in individual and collective life. As John Michael Greer reveals, the opposite is also true: the demotion of a planet correlates with the decline of a set of influences into the background. Exploring the waxing and waning of planetary influences in astrology, Greer explains in detail how the demotion or proved nonexistence of a planet marks the beginning of a roughly 30-year period in which that planet’s influence fades out. He examines several examples of planet demotion, including Ceres, whose influence began to take shape some 30 years before its discovery in 1801 and gradually faded over the three decades following its demotion in the 1850s. Examining Pluto’s astrological influence in depth, from the beginning of the search for “Planet X” in 1900 to the end of its influence in 2036, the author shows how during the Plutonian era the concept of cosmos--from the ancient Greek meaning “that which is beautifully ordered”--was in eclipse. Pluto’s influence led to the rejection of unity, beauty, and order, exemplified through the splitting of the atom by physicists, the splitting of the individual into conscious and subconscious halves by psychoanalysts, and the splitting of the world into warring camps by politicians. Offering an essential guide not only to the astrology of the future but also to the twilight of the Plutonian era, Greer shows how as Pluto’s influence fades out in the years ahead, a great many disruptive phenomena of the recent past will fade with it.

Describes the characteristics of the three most distant planets in the solar system--Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

Explores the outer solar system, what Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto would be like, why it would take a whole lifetime to travel to Pluto and whether humans could ever live there.

Chronicles the origin and discovery of Uranus, Neptune, and their moons and discusses explorations and composition of these distant gas giants.