The World at Night is a book filled with beautiful photographs of the night sky from different parts of the world and info sets to go along with them. The photos taken are from various photographers throughout the world and the best part of the book was surely the instructions at the back how you can take photos like this yourself. This isn't a set of photos from amateurs, but photographers specialized in night time photographing and thus the photos are more like science and not just beautiful in their own sense. In a way I felt the texts were vain except for those captions next to the photos. The info side of the book was lacking and just wondering about the philosophical side of the wondrous world. This felt kind of cheap. Perhaps I wanted more of scientific approach.

I would have wanted the photos to take more room, to fill out the pages. Some of them were small and the text ate out the beauty of the photos, which was a shame. The photos were the reason I wanted to read this, but now I got insipid walls of text and too small photos in most cases. The book is still quite good of course, since well, the photos are awesome none the less. With slight adjustments this could've been even better and I wish it had been. We don't have enough books like this, so points for the topic of course.

Here is another delightful book on the night sky for me to gaze at - I could spend all day looking at the detail of each photograph.

The World at Night is split into six main chapters and then further sections which are:

One People, one sky - horizons, polar, stargazing
World Heritages - astronomy, natural, historic
Hidden Universe - reveals, moon, aurora, seasonal, southern atmospheric, satellites
Events that shook the world - eclipses, comets, meteor showers, conjunctions, atmospheric, aurora storm
Fragile beauty of darkness - above our lights, city skies, impact on environment
Dark sky refuges - reserves, national parks, near the lights, remote, world observatories.

Each chapter and subsequent section comes with an Introduction and each photograph from around the world has a paragraph relating to its location and features.

At the rear of the book is details of each of the contributing photographers, along with a short section on how to take your own photographs of the night sky.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Review to come on 4th of November. Blog and Website.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I JUST LOVE books about nightskies. Seeing all the stars twinkle in the sky, even on places with tons of light is just so magical. And it gets more magical when you go to place without any lightpollution. I recently read a book like this from my library and so I was eager to start a new one, namely this one.

Note, due to the text being itty bitty on my ADE I couldn't read them. Instead I just focused on the gorgeous and beautiful photographs, and hot dang, those were gorgeous. The photographs are crisp and clear, yes this may seem weird, but I have had some photography books with photos being blurry/out of focus. But these were all just stunningly done. At times I wanted to touch my screen to see if I could go there.
We don't just see stars and moons and volcanoes erupting, but we also see the northern light, oh wow. I so wish I could go to those places.
There also eclipses, and I loved that one of Lofoten Islands. Comets and meteor showers also make an appearance and I was glad they were included. I saw one (or two) in August during the Perseids (I believe it is called that). Not more, as that would have meant getting up wayyyy to early for my body. :P Maybe one day.
And then there were plenty of other cool and gorgeous stuff that happens at the night sky.


Btw, it was a delight to see Venice again. My hubby and I went there for our honeymoon in July, and it was just so stunning.

Yes, this is one book I would recommend to all. Stunning gorgeous photographs of the night sky. If it ever gets into one of my libraries (though probably translated, urgh), I may borrow it so I can read the text.

Stunning photographs of the night sky accompanied with interesting and informative captions.

I loved reading this book. For me, the night sky has always been something that I've been fascinated by. Whether that be the stars, the aurora borealis, nocturnal animals, or just the feeling of being out on a dark night with crisp air, illuminated by the moon. I love it all. And if you're someone like me, I just know you'll love this book too.

Something I really liked about this book was the different sections. I thought the photographs were classified really well, and I really liked how they included a section on nightscapes taken in or near cities. Pollution is talked about a lot these days, but one of the most important and severe types is often overlooked; and that's light pollution. The photos in that section really show how light pollution affects our night sky, whilst still being very beautiful. Another aspect I liked is how informative the captions were; if you're a newbie to astronomy like me, you won't have too much trouble understanding and will definitely learn a thing or two! And I think you'll also be inspired to get more involved too!

My only issue with the book were captions being the wrong way on one of the pages which was a bit confusing, but as I read an advanced copy I'm sure this will be straightened out before being published.


I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

”But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don’t know how many people today have seen a night sky devoid of man-made lighting, which, of course, detracts from the natural beauty that can be found where night prevails. I don’t know how many people grew up in neighborhoods where there were such childhood delights in lightning bugs, or just laying under an open sky, enjoying that moment with a friend or loved one. I do know that when I moved from the part of New Jersey where I grew up, it was over 20 years before I saw another lightning bug, or went anywhere beyond city limits, where the night sky was awe-inspiring. And when I did, and when I remembered, it made me want to cry.

I wanted to read this because photography has been one of my passions since I was very young and my father bought me my first camera. And now that I’ve travelled a bit beyond my own back yard since my childhood, and acquired a camera or two, studied a bit more, I’m still in awe of these photographs, their beauty, and also the stories they tell.

I’ll never see some of these places, but it’s (almost) enough for me to enjoy them through the photography of others, and especially the photography of the Church of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo in New Zealand. The last time I was there I took photographs of the same church, but I wish I could claim to have taken the one in this book. It’s stunning, and yet it isn’t close to being the more stunning than the others. They’re all stunning. Beautiful. Works of art.

There’s a Bavarian castle in one with the sky filled with a swirl of stars, lighting the one side of this castle that is surrounded by massive trees - it looks like something out of a fairy tale. Many of these have an essence that reminds me of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, the stars in swirls in the night sky.

There is a serious side to this, which addresses the problem of light pollution and the affect it has on our planet, and beyond that, the skies above us littered with the remains of man-made objects now floating in space, polluting not only our planet but the universe.

Educational, as well as visually enticing, this is a lovely book for all ages to learn about our planet, and share some sights through photography that most have never seen.

The author, Babak Tafreshi, is the founder of the international organization ’The World at Night’, and was responsible for selecting and organizing the more than 200 photographs taken by more than 40 photographers who live in 25 different countries, making this an ambitious and challenging task.



Pub Date: 19 Nov 2019


Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion Publishing, and Netgalley for the ARC provided

This is an absolutely stunning and educational coffee table book featuring beautiful photographs of the night sky from many different photographers around the world. They are arranged in chapters by themes and feature everything from light pollution to the Northern Lights to great landmarks to meteor showers.

I had a hard time reading the text that accompanied the photographs since the digital ARC I received had very small print and I had to zoom in and out to reach each paragraph. The text was incredibly educational and interesting too, and would make it a great homeschool resource to sneak in astronomy, geography, geology and more.

Because of the cost (retail is $40.00), I can't justify buying a copy for our home, but this is definitely going into my library reserve list. Highly recommended.

The World at Night is a stunningly beautiful book! Not only are the photographs amazing, but I appreciate the information given with each photo (background of the site, technique(s) used to photograph it etc.) I will look at these photographs again and again and again.

Many thanks to NetGalley and White Lion Publishing for allowing me to view a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Amazing photos I really enjoyed looking at these amazing pictures. I feel that taking stunning night photos is a special skill and it takes a deeper understanding of the canvas being captured. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review and I'm so impressed.

A beautiful coffee-table like book. The photography is well done and the book is compiled expertly. Will recommend.

Astonishingly beautiful photos I devoured the book every exquisite picture .Will be giving this book as gift to friends .#netgalley #quartobooks.

I absolutely loved the photography it was visually stunning, I wasn’t quite as interested in the techniques to achieve the pictures , but the phots alone just make the book worth it, just amazing

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This book is filled with stunning photographs from all over the world of the night sky. While that may not sound interesting it is absolutely beautiful.

This book also has captions for the pictures about locations, how the photograph was captured,’etc. While this may be interesting to some ( photographers, students, for example) I just didn’t enjoy that part of it. It felt very nat geo and I just ended up skipping most of them.

This book makes me feel that my words could never, ever in a million years do it justice. This book is something that must be seen to understand the beauty within its pages. This is a must have for anyone interested in the world, in astronomy, in photography.

First, let us just stipulate that the photos are gorgeous. There aren’t enough synonyms for “beautiful” for me to write a coherent review, so let’s just state it as fact and move on. The photographs are from all around the world (25 different countries), and in every type of landscape. There are mountains and lakes, canyons and deserts. Stars, moons, eclipses, meteors. Cityscapes, countryscapes, buildings, animals and people. But in every single photograph is an amazing night sky.

There is information to read about every place you see, and what is going on in each photo. There is a section to tell you about each photographer who contributed to the book, and a very nice section on “How to Take Nightscape Photographs”.

Every time I glance back at the photos my mind just freezes up. You have to see it to believe it, and I definitely urge you to take a look.

So many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for allowing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can’t get enough of this book, and at 240 pages it will take me weeks to study each photograph. Definitely put it on your Wish List!

Based on the e-content, I suspect the book will look gorgeous when it's released. The photographers who worked on this collection deserve a great deal of credit for capturing such stunning images that are both just downright humbling to look at and beautiful to behold.

The text, I felt, gave the right amount of information on the locations of the shots and the descriptions of the techniques used to capture the pictures without getting bogged down into too much detail.

Very lovely book.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Wow. I read this right after getting it, and it is excellent. The text is good, but the real star (ha!) is the incredible photos! They are diverse and world-class images. I defy any reader that doesn't think it lives up to its description to rate it lower than 5 stars. Highly recommended.

The photos in this book are amazing ! I have already added it to my wish list because I will need a printed copy of this book when it comes out,

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing with me 💚💚