4. Bad Astronomy

Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax" - a book by Philip C. Plait.

This book by a science writer, who teaches in astronomy department at Sonoma State University, deals with common myths and misconceptions related to astronomy, like "The sky is blue because it reflects the blue color of the oceans", "The Hubble Space Telescope is bigger than all Earth-based telescopes." or "The Moon is bigger near the horizon than when it's overhead." One very interesting chapter deals with "conspiracy" theory, according to which American astronauts never landed on the moon, and the whole landing event was staged in one of the Hollywood studios.

I got this book in the local library and enjoyed it greatly. I've actually never heard about this "moon conspiracy theory", so it was very enlightening for me to learn truth about it so that if somebody mentiones this to me i'd be able to debunk this stupidity with the knowledge I learned from this book. I also found answers to the questions which seem to be simple on the surface, but the answers i though to be correct are actually wrong. For instance now i know that the seasons are caused by the Earth's tilt.