This is a book review of When Galaxies Were Born: The Quest for Cosmic Dawn by Richard S. Ellis.
When Galaxies Were Born: The Quest for Cosmic Dawn, by Richard S.
Ellis (Princeton University Press), 2022. Pp. 253, 24.5 x 17 cm. Price
£25 (hardbound, ISBN 978 0 691 21130 5).
This is an enjoyable romp through the last fifty years or so of
important parts of extragalactic astronomy, seamlessly integrated with
the story of the technology which made that possible and the life of the
author, one of the most important players in the field. Ellis enjoyed a
range of high-level positions in astronomy, including that of the
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge
and Director of Palomar Observatory at Caltech, before, after a short
stint at ESO, returning to UCL. The nine main chapters (there is also
an epilogue, concentrating on JWST) are organized mainly around
the principal telescopes: the Palomar 200-inch, the AAT, the
WHT on La Palma, the HST, the Keck telescopes,
modern ESO telescopes. Ellis's work is concerned mainly with
observational cosmology, in particular the origin and evolution of
galaxies and the quest to observe the earliest galaxies (reflected in
the subtitle), which has necessitated using increasingly powerful
instruments to observe galaxies at higher and higher redshifts This is a
wonderful book.