The night sky is the most exciting, precious and threatened resource we humans have. Since it’s always been central to the human experience of the world, it offers a rich vein for writers, but most books on the subject utterly lack emotion.

Not so these three highly original titles hitting the shelves in 2024, which range from an engaging polemic on light pollution that will instantly rekindle your interest in stargazing to refreshing new takes on space exploration and on the the fabulous discoveries made in recent years.

Here are the best books on space, the night sky and stargazing to read in 2024:

1. ‘All Through the Night’ by Dani Robertson

With 99% of North Americans and Europeans unable to see the Milky Way, a polemic book that brings the problem of light pollution into sharp focus was overdue. “All Through The Night” is a unique book from Dani Robertson (@DaniDarkSkies on X), a Dark Sky Officer in North Wales who comes at the problem of light pollution from unexpected and illuminating angles.

It’s packed with surprising facts, heartfelt opinions and entertaining stories from the author’s life; it’s certainly the only book to include both an eyewitness account of a total solar eclipse and a boozy Friday night in the Welsh Valleys. But it also offers an entertaining insight into everything from the history of stargazing to the future of low-Earth orbit.

Rarely is a non-fiction book about science this engaging, but it’s also a call to arms. “The night sky is for everyone, all beings, all things,” writes Robertson. “Where is the rage against the dying of the night?” The answer lies within, with the author’s enthusiasm, knowledge and bristling anger about light pollution an infectious combination. By the end you’ll be ready to fight for the night.

All Through the Night: Why Our Lives Depend on Dark Skies by Dani Robertson (HarperNorth, $29.99 hardcover/audiobook on Audible) will be released in the U.S. on January 23, 2024 and can be pre-ordered now. It’s already been published in the U.K.

2. ‘Diamonds Everywhere’ by Tom Kerss

Here’s a timely, entertaining, beautifully designed reminder of just why light pollution is so tragic. We live in an age where groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy are becoming commonplace, but putting the current state of the science and outlining its 101 most exciting aspects is no mean feat.

That’s what Kerss (@tomkerss on X) does in “Diamonds Everywhere,” an exhaustive but never tiring account of everything that’s interesting in astronomy, from exactly where the Big Bang happened and why the universe has its own TV channel to why there are auroras on Mars and, of course, why diamonds (may) exist in the atmospheres of both Uranus and Neptune.

A compendium of the most exciting topics in space—from tantalizing exomoons to mysterious dark matter—Kerss’ authoritative and entertaining style helps make this a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in space and astronomy.

Diamonds Everywhere: Awe-Inspiring Astronomy Discoveries by Tom Kerss (Collins, $24.99) will be released on March 13, 2024 and can be pre-ordered now.

3. ‘Space: The Human Story’ by Tim Peake

With NASA’s Artemis missions to return astronauts to the moon’s surface in 2025 and commercial space travel already a reality, we’re in a new era for human spaceflight. Cue a timely telling of the extraordinary occupation by British astronaut Tim Peake, one of the 628 people who have left Earth.

It also transpires that Peake—who was on the ISS from 2015-2016—is something of a student of the astronaut experience, here collecting some fabulous first-hand accounts and anecdotes from some of those involved in space exploration’s most iconic moments.

From the unveiling of the Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959 to Bruce McCandless’ untethered spacewalk in 1984, Peake proves an adept story-teller. Along the way we find out unexpected details, such as that the crew of Apollo 11—the first crew to land on the moon in 1969—considered themselves little more than “amiable strangers.” We also learn that Neil Armstrong thought the main achievement was landing a spacecraft on the moon, which he did in unison with Buzz Aldrin; who cared who walked on its surface first, or even if anyone did at all? Peake reasons that this is exactly why Armstrong was carefully selected by NASA to be the first human on the moon.

Meticulously researched and told in the astronauts’ voices, there are a lot of stories here that Apollo fanatics will have read before, but Peake’s authentic and down-to-earth perspective humanizes what is an entirely alien occupation to most of us.

Space: The Human Story by Tim Peake is out now (Penguin, from $17.99)

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.