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starship-design: Book Recommendation



I just ordered a copy of Spacetime Physics to add to my collection. Feynman 
and Hawking are good, but I need all the help I can get. I came across a reference to another good book that everyone may be interested in, it is 
called:

Proximity Zero (I think this is a pun on Tau Zero)
by Terry Kepner
ISBN 0-926895-04-4

This is a guide to the local 40 light years for writers of science fiction 
to enable them to get their facts straight. From the previews I have seen 
it is REALLY good. It covers all the standard information such as position 
in the sky (with charts), spectral type, mass, luminosity, etc. But then 
goes on to detail life zones (even for binary stars) and give examples of 
what a habitable planet might be like at each of these stars for almost 200 
stars. Lots of charts, diagrams and data in a good format. Most of the data 
is available on the web, but this book does a really good job of pulling it 
all together and presenting it. For a preview go to:

http://www.peekaboo.net/tkepner/proximityzero.html

Lee Parker