"Ferris profiles some of the stars of amateur astronomy, such as comet hunter extraordinaire David Levy (best known for co-discovering Comet Shoemaker-Levy, which plummeted into Jupiter in 1994). But he also meanders about the community's charming backroads, where you never know whom you are going to meet. The introductions include a roly-poly Houston housewife and master observer who casually chases alligators away from her observatory with a rake, and a sculptor who converted the caldera of an extinct volcano into an enduring work of modern astronomical art. We even get to meet Brian May of the rock group Queen. It turns out that the fellow who wrote "We Will Rock You" also did postgraduate work in infrared astronomy and still observes as an amateur. To provide context for the profiles, Ferris has also written an excellent introduction to basic astronomy.... Seeing in the Dark teaches an important lesson for any nonprofessional interested in science. Amateurs may not have access to all the toys the professionals do. But they always seem to enjoy their research tremendously—and many make discoveries, some of them of immense value to our understanding of the universe."—Scientific American