The original purpose of the Longer View books is to provide charts and descriptions of the planets’ travels in the years ahead. But there is also the three-century human story (replete with controversies and ironies) of how the first new planets were discovered, each leading to the next. And there is much to point out about these bodies’ characteristics and intricate motions.80 illustrations, and 73 short chapters, such as Herschel’s oboe and telescope , Not the predicted planet , The apple of discord , Pioneers and Voyagers to the outer giants , Neptune’s circular yet wavy orbit , Clusters of Uranus events , Uranus by Moonlight , Pluto’s much-more-than-sidewise rotation , Grim ferryman , The Neptune-Pluto standoff , The Pluto-Charon embrace , Pluto’s painted deserts , Oligarchs and Plutocrats …