Gemologist Martin P. Steinbach has had a lifelong fascination with asterism. This is the property of gems (so-called star stones or asteria) to show a star-like pattern of reflected or refracted light after they have been polished and shaped. This is the first book on this topic, showing the different classes of star stones using a large number of photos.
Martin P. Steinbach (born in 1957) graduated in 1982 from the German Gemological Association (DGemG) as a Gemologist and is a Fellow of the Gemological Association of West Germany (FGG), and he graduated as an Accredited Gemologist (A.G.) in 1983 with the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS) in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1982 he received a Diploma as a Diamond-Expert with the DGemG in Idar-Oberstein.