Technology provides us with the means to look further out at the universe from our corner of it than we had ever dreamed possible. "The Universe at Midnight" tells the story of 20th-century cosmology. In this jargon-free guide to the awesome, Ken Croswell does not just simply state the answers to questions about the origin of the universe and its demise based on complicated mathematical theory. Instead he presents the dramatic story of how particular astronomers made the observations that recently have answered many of cosmology's more perplexing questions. Discoveries such as the "Great Attractor", a mass of galaxies 250 million light years away that is actually tugging at our galaxy and thousands of others, and supernovae billions of light years distant that indicate that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. This book presents a clear view of how magnificent observatories and orbiting telescopes are the future of cosmology and the key to unlocking the universe's greatest mysteries.