From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <40ABD33C.3080506@tabletoptelephone.com>,   
   Hop David   wrote:   
   >I got the Bate, Mueller and White book for $10 (IIRC). At Amazon the   
   >Prussing book was $70 (also IIRC).   
      
   The one real virtue of BMW is that it's cheap.   
      
   >But Henry's opinions are usually based on sound arguments. I am hoping   
   >he'll tell what he didn't like about BMW and how the Prussing Conway   
   >book was better.   
      
   BMW covers all the topics the USAF Academy thought were worth covering in   
   1970.  And nothing else.  Basics of orbits, okay, and some interesting   
   stuff on lunar trajectories (Apollo was flying then).  Close to half the   
   book is spent on orbit determination, which is particularly wasteful   
   because there is good specialist coverage of that topic elsewhere.  And   
   then there's the chapter on ballistic-missile trajectories, whee.   
      
   Essentially nothing on rendezvous, or relative motion in general.  Nothing   
   on multi-body dynamics.  Almost nothing on perturbations.  The stuff on   
   numerical methods can be described politely as "dated".  Half a page on   
   geostationary orbit.  No bielliptic or other generalized transfers, no   
   gravity assists.  Almost nothing on time and coordinate systems, a nasty   
   swamp but important.   
      
   I have my complaints about P&C -- mainly, that I'd like to see it bigger   
   to cover more topics -- but it's a much more modern and balanced treatment.   
   --   
   MOST launched 30 June; science observations running     |   Henry Spencer   
   since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending.        | henry@spsystems.net   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)