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Part B of Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics continues the history of celestial mechanics and observational discovery through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It provides a synoptic view of the main developments and furnishes details about the lives, ideas, and interactions of the various astronomers involved.Twelve different authors have contributed their expertise to this book that begins with the reception of Newton's inverse-square law. In the remainder, a large place is given to the development of the mathematical theory of celestial mechanics from Clairaut and Euler to LeVerrier, Newcomb, Hill, andPoincaré. This emphasis is balanced by other chapters on observational discoveries and the rapprochement of observation and theory (for instance, the discovery of Uranus and the asteroids, use of Venus transits to refine solar parallax, introduction of the method of least squares, and the development of planetary and satellite ephemerides). Lists of "Further Reading" provide entrée to the literature of the several topics. This book will be of great interest to historians of science and astronomers. ... Read more

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For a quantitative understanding of the physics of the universe - from the solar system through the milky way to clusters of galaxies all the way to cosmology - these edited lecture notes are perhaps among the most concise and also among the most critical ones: Astrophysics has not yet stood the redundancy test of laboratory physics, hence should be aware of early interpretations. Special chapters are devoted to magnetic and radiation processes, supernovae, disks, black-hole candidacy, bipolar flows, cosmic rays, gamma-ray bursts, image distortions, and special sources. At the same time, planet earth is viewed as the arena for life, with plants and animals having evolved to homo sapiens during cosmic time. -- This text is unique in covering the basic qualitative and quantitative tools, formulae as well as numbers, needed for the precise interpretation of frontline phenomena. The author compares mainstream interpretations with new and even controversial ones he wishes to emphasize.

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G. Beutler's Methods of Celestical Mechanics is a coherent textbook for students as well as an excellent reference for practitioners. The first volume gives a thorough treatment of celestial mechanics and presents all the necessary mathematical details that a professional would need. The reader will appreciate the well-written chapters on numerical solution techniques for ordinary differential equations, as well as that on orbit determination. In the second volume applications to the rotation of earth and moon, to artificial earth satellites and to the planetary system are presented. The author addresses all aspects that are of importance in high-tech applications, such as the detailed gravitational fields of all planets and the earth, the oblateness of the earth, the radiation pressure and the atmospheric drag. The concluding part of this monumental treatise explains and details state-of-the-art professional and thoroughly-tested software for celestial mechanics. The accompanying CD-ROM enables readers to employ this software themselves and also serves as to illustrate and reinforce the related theoretical concepts.

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An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics aspires to provide the reader with an intermediate knowledge on stars whilst focusing mostly on the explanation of the functioning of stars by using basic physical concepts and observational results.

The book is divided into seven chapters, featuring both core and optional content:

• Basic concepts
• Stellar Formation
• Radiative Transfer in Stars
• Stellar Atmospheres
• Stellar Interiors
• Nucleosynthesis and Stellar Evolution and
• Chemically Peculiar Stars and Diffusion.

Student-friendly features include:

• Detailed examples to help the reader better grasp the most important concepts
• A list of exercises is given at the end of each chapter and answers to a selection of these are presented.
• Brief recalls of the most important physical concepts needed to properly understand stars.
• A summary for each chapter
• Optional and advanced sections are included which may be skipped without interfering with the flow of the core content.

This book is designed to cover the most important aspects of stellar astrophysics inside a one semester (or half-year) course and as such is relevant for advanced undergraduate students following a first course on stellar astrophysics, in physics or astronomy programs. It will also serve as a basic reference for a full-year course as well as for researchers working in related fields. ... Read more

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The recent research domain of asteroseismology studies the internal structure of stars, which is not directly observable, through the interpretation of the frequency spectra of stellar oscillations. The basic principles of asteroseismology are very similar to those developed by earth seismologists. Stellar interiors can be probed from oscillations because different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star. Asteroseismology is the only available method to derive the internal structure of the stars with high precision.

This book – the first on asteroseismology – offers a practical guide for graduate students and scientists working in stellar astrophysics. It provides a general introduction to asteroseismology and comprehensive coverage of all its aspects: fundamental theory, observations and observational techniques, methodology of data analysis and seismic interpretations of various classes of multi-periodic pulsating stars.

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In this third corrected and revised edition students and lecturers in astronomy and planetary science as well as planet observers will find a mine of up-to-date information on the solar system and its interaction with the interplanetary medium, its various objects, comparative planetology, discussion of questions for further research and future space exploration.

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The Dictionary of Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy provides a lexicon of terminology covering fields such as astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, relativity, geophysics, meteorology, Newtonian physics, and oceanography. Authors and editors often assume - incorrectly - that readers are familiar with all the terms in professional literature. With over 4,000 definitions and 50 contributing authors, this unique comprehensive dictionary helps scientists to use terminology correctly and to understand papers, articles, and books in which physics-related terms appear. ... Read more

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Astronomers and astrophysicists are making revolutionary advances in our understanding of planets, stars, galaxies, and even the structure of the universe itself. "The Decade of Discovery presents a survey" of this exciting field of science and offers a prioritized agenda for space- and ground-based research into the twenty-first century. The book presents specific recommendations, programs, and expenditure levels to meet the needs of the astronomy and astrophysics communities. Accessible to the interested lay reader, the book explores: the technological investments needed for instruments that will be built in the next century; the importance of the computer revolution to all aspects of astronomical research; the potential usefulness of the moon as an observatory site; and policy issues relevant to the funding of astronomy and the execution of astronomical projects. "The Decade of Discovery" will prove valuable to science policymakers, research administrators, scientists, and students in the physical sciences, and interested lay readers. ... Read more

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The book begins with a historical introduction, "Star Formation: The Early History", that presents new material of interest for students and historians of science. This is followed by two long articles on "Pre-Main-Sequence Evolution of Stars and Young Clusters" and "Observations of Young Stellar Objects". These articles on the fascinating problem of star formation from interstellar matter give a thorough overview of present-day theories and observations. The articles contain material so far unpublished in the astronomical literature. The book addresses graduate students and can be used as a textbook for advanced courses in stellar astrophysics. ... Read more

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The study of the Solar system, particularly of its newly discovered outer parts, is one of the hottest topics in modern astrophysics with great potential for revealing fundamental clues about the origin of planets and even the emergence of life. The three lecturers of the 35th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, which have been updated and collected in this volume, cover the field from observational, theoretical and numerical perspectives.

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This volume is concerned essentially with the modern developments in reflecting telescope optics. In the last twenty years, modern technology has revolutionized not only manufacturing and test procedures but also the whole area of quality specification with the introduction of active control into the functioning telescope. Other subjects covered here are alignment of telescope optics, atmospheric optics, including adaptive optics, reflecting coatings and ancillary equipment (adapters and baffles). Although an independent work, Vol. II is heavily cross-referenced with Vol. I. It is richly illustrated and gives, together with Vol. I, the most complete list of references available; it can also therefore be regarded as a source book. ... Read more

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Fundamental Astronomy gives a well-balanced and comprehensive introduction to the topics of classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences.
The fifth edition of this successful undergraduate textbook has been extensively modernized and extended in the parts dealing with the Milky Way, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology as well as with extrasolar planets and the solar system (as a consequence of recent results from satellite missions and the new definition by the International Astronomical Union of planets, dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies). Furthermore a new chapter on astrobiology has been added.
Long considered a standard text for physical science majors, Fundamental Astronomy is also an excellent reference and entrée for dedicated amateur astronomers.

Customer Reviews (6)

Print Quality Issue
I'm familiar with the previous edition as I used to borrow it from my uni library. I've already completed the first three chapters. The exercises are great, you might want to write a program for some of the stuff if you have some programming skills. The book is just great for an amateur astronomer; the math is a bit advanced for most people frankly, but if you're already into astronomy and physics you probably have a good mathematics and physics background so it shouldn't be hard to sharpen it.

The only thing I found disappointing was the print quality. The book first couple of pages were already torn from the rest when I received the book and you can tell easily that's it's one book you need to handle with a lot of care.

FUNDAMENTAL errors in teaching ASTRONOMY
NOTE: This review refers to the ENGLISH language version. Also, please forgive me if I sound like typical, self-centered American. The focus of my review will be for English speaking Americans, since the Amazon description of the book doesnt seem to mention what I will in my review:

Let me give a brief background of myself and why I sought out this book: I am an American born, raised, and schooled in America. I have a bachelors in math with a minor in astro, and a masters in math education. I am looking to return to grad school in the hopes of obtaining a PhD in applied math with an emphasis on astro. I wanted to brush up on my undergraduate astronomy studies before returning to school and so I was looking for a reputable text that would be sufficient for self study. The descriptions of the book as well as Amazon reviews and other internet reviews made me choose this title. Unfortunately, this book is riddled with problems that make studying from it and appreciating the subject matter unnecessarily difficult:

1. The english version of the book is merely a TRANSLATION. I have lived overseas myself for a few years and understand when the language is being translated. Consequently, there are many awkward sentences, poorly structured paragraphs, and sometimes you'll even find random sentences that seem out of place within a paragraph. I am not nitpicking as if I were a grammar-crazed nut, what I'm saying is that after a few pages of reading it becomes clear that the language being used is not very natural english. The book may be in English, but it requires further translation into understandable, cohesive English.

2. Some of the common math formulas, and the way in which diagrams are labeled appear in somewhat different forms (certainly not incorrect, just different from an american math textbook approach). I'm guessing that this is how it's done in Europe, but for an american it will require an extra step (and wasted time) to turn a formula into a more recognizable 'american' version.

3. Black and White pictures! this is the 21st century and the most visually inspiring science is being robbed of its awe and wonder by being displayed in BLACK AND WHITE! For some strange reason, there are a few color pictures in their own section in the very back of the book.


I cannot recommend this book to any American. There is just too much extra work required on behalf of an American reader to make sense of it, especially considering there are plenty of American textbooks with an American approach to math that won't require the extra effort of translation and that also aren't limited to black and white photos.

Perhaps a european who speaks english, but not Finnish will get some use out of it. And maybe the Finnish version is great for the people of Finland, but I would not recommend this book to be used in any American university.

Great fundamental Astronomy Text
As an amateur astronomer who loves theory and the math that goes with it, I found this text to be utterly exquisite for helping me recapture a lot of my old math skills. While the real amount of calculus needed in the text was not overtly taxing, I did find the text very useful indeed for requiring the use of a strong algebra background, along with lots of Trig, and of course, geometry and Calculus.

The problems in this book were intriguing, challenging and just awesome in every respect. For example, I found myself for the first time since I can recall, drawing Trig and geometrical diagrams to assist in visualizing a particular problem as an aid toward the ultimate answer! These problems, all of them mathematical in nature, are extremely interesting and encourage you to make a sketch of the phenomenon at hand in order to arrive at a solution.

And in addition to the problems, the text has very useful solved examples that show you how a particular problem calculation is reached. You really do learn a lot just from these examples.

I think the book might have benefitted from having even more exercises in it, which to me would make it even more useful for a semester university course in introductory Astrophysics. Instead of having 73 exercises, perhaps 150-200 problems would have been more 'whetting' to an appetite like mine is for Astronomy. But, I can heartily recommend that this book, if completed and all the problems worked, will definitely prepare one for a more challenging text with more Math and problems!

The authors could only improve this thing with more text length and more problems, as far as I am concerned. The appendixes and Tables in the back give the student a little bit of good background to the Math needed in the book as well.

This text is a complete WINNER in the category of INTRODUCTORY TEXTBOOKS for the beginning course in college Astronomy!

A Fundamental Astronomy Reference
Fundamental Astronomy is both the title and an excellent description of the content of this handsome hard back volume. For the book to reach the fourth edition, it must be hitting a niche in the market. The preface to the first edition in 1987 identifies that market as a "university textbook for a first course in astronomy" which is also suited for serious amateurs who "find the popular texts too trivial". In my opinion, that description from the original preface is "spot on" and makes this volume a must-buy for any serious amateur looking for a comprehensive overview of matters astronomical.

The book covers the basics of astronomy, stellar astrophysics and mainly features of our Universe which are relatively close-at-hand. Large scale structure and cosmology are less than ten percent of the content. It covers all topics to considerable depth, far more so than most publications aimed at a general readership. It is mathematical, although the maths is present largely for academic completeness, and can be skimmed or by-passed as required without reducing to any great extent, the utility provided. Its usefulness for education purposes is enhanced by worked examples in each section followed by exercises.

Within its 19 major sections, it contains much relevant and dare I say fundamental material. The book is well illustrated with mainly monochrome plates which are relevant to the subject at hand plus many carefully constructed, concise graphics and illustrations.

This is a comprehensive reference volume, which will age but slowly on any serious amateur's book shelf, as the subject matter is largely timeless.

A Great Astronomy Textbook!
.This is a great and comprehensive primary textbook for a student. It is massive introduction to the huge field of astronomical study, and as such contains much of the basic concepts and plenty of hands-on exercises.
I have been mainly using theFinnish version, but having also browsed through the English one I can safely say that the two differ from each other only minimally and thus my experiences with the original hold true with the translation too.
As an end note I might point out, that even though having studied astronomy at the university, it is by no means my area of expertise: I'm majoring in linguistics. That alone, I think, proves how clear and well-written this tome really is: even an Arts students can read it and actually understand and learn! ;) ... Read more

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With information and scale as central themes, this comprehensive survey explains how to handle real problems in astronomical data analysis using a modern arsenal of powerful techniques. It treats those innovative methods of image, signal, and data processing that are proving to be both effective and widely relevant. The authors are leaders in this rapidly developing field and draw upon decades of experience. They have been playing leading roles in international projects such as the Virtual Observatory and the Grid.
The book addresses not only students and professional astronomers and astrophysicists, but also serious amateur astronomers and specialists in earth observation, medical imaging, and data mining. The coverage includes chapters or appendices on: detection and filtering; image compression; multichannel, multiscale, and catalog data analytical methods; wavelets transforms, Picard iteration, and software tools.

This second edition of Starck and Murtagh's highly appreciated reference again deals with topics that are at or beyond the state of the art. It presents material which is more algorithmically oriented than most alternatives and broaches new areas like ridgelet and curvelet transforms. Throughout the book various additions and updates have been made.

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Fully updated with data from space-based observations and a comprehensive index and bibliography, this third edition contains the most frequently used information in modern astrophysics. As well as a vast number of tables, graphs, diagrams and formulae it also contains information covering topics including atomic physics, nuclear physics, relativity, plasma physics, electromagnetism, mathematics, probability and statistics, and geophysics. This handbook will be an essential reference for graduate students, researchers and professionals working in astronomy and the space sciences. A website containing extensive supplementary information and databases can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521782425. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great reference book
This is the third edition of Zombeck's excellent handbook - and it was long overdue.It is an invaluable resource for students and academics in the field of space science and astrophysics.The layout is clean and information is easy to find.As well as covering all the standard topics one might expect in such a book, there are some interesting extras such as permissible raditation doses.Be warned though, there are relatively few explanations in here so it is not a book for the general public - you really have to know the subject matter.

A reference for modern Space Scientists
This book is meant to be like the C.R.C.
Mathematics Tables that many of us have carried since high school.
Starting with fundamentals constants it presents values and equations
necessary for calculations in astronomical science
and ends with information on space delivery systems available at the time of printing.
Every college library connected with an astronomy program should have this reference on it's shelves. ... Read more

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The underlying astrophysical mechanisms of the objects known as asymptotic giant branch stars - the structures that occur during the dramatic period prior to a star's death - is the main theme of this text. Over the past three decades, asymptotic giant branch stars have become a topic of their own, and the contributions to this volume all focus on these entities themselves, rather than their connections to other fields of astronomy. Among the many topics covered are new methods of high- quality infrared observation and the more detailed and realistic simulations made possible by increasingly fast computers. This collection should be useful to graduate students who work in the field, teachers who want to address the subject in their courses, and to astronomers from various backgrounds who are interested in the astrophysics of AGB stars.

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This second edition has been entirely restructured and almost doubled in size, in order to improve clarity and account for the great progress achieved in the field over the last 15 years.
"This is not a handbook for observers. It is a broader reference for students, active researchers, and anyone who wants a detailed look at the tools of modern astronomy..." -PHYSICS TODAY ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

takes you to the frontiers
Astronomy is going through exciting times, as new and better instrumentation and methods gives us greater insight into the universe. This book helps explain what some of the advances are. It gives basic material about radiation, photometry and the like. There is an important explanation of how the atmosphere has traditionally limited the resolution of images (at least in the visible spectrum) due to turbulence. Which leads the book into some of the attractions of space-based telescopes.

But the book also goes into how ground based telescopes are overcoming the atmospheric barrier. Using adaptive optics in "smart" telescopes. This lets them cancel out the effects of turbulence, on the time scale of that turbulence. Very impressive. We can push to the instrinsic limits of the optics.

The book takes you to the frontiers of modern astronomy. ... Read more

Product Description
The exploration of the first billion years of the history of the Universe, from the so-called dark ages to cosmic reionisation, represents one of the great challenges of contemporary astrophysics. During these phases the first structures start to grow forming the first stars, galaxies, and possibly also soon the first quasars. At the same time the dark, neutral Universe starts to be lit up and ionised by these sources, leading to its progressive reionisation anding at a redshift of about 6. Furthermore the first stars and supernovae begin to enrich their surroundings and the intergalactic medium, and to produce the first dust.
In the recent years tremendous progress has been made on the theoretical understanding and on numerical simulations of the underlying astrophysical mechanisms. Furthermore, observations of signatures of reionisation and even direct observations of galaxies at redshifts larger than 6 are now becoming feasible. The observational and theoretical aspects of this story were comprehensively and pedagocically covered by the lecturers of the 36th Saas-Fee Advanced Course. This volume contains their worked out and updated lecture notes. ... Read more

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Special and General Relativity are concisely developed together with essential aspects of nuclear and particle physics. Problem sets are provided for many chapters, making the book ideal for a course on the physics of white dwarf and neutron star interiors. Norman K. Glendenning is Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Nuclear Science Division, Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of numerous books.

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This newly expanded and thoroughly updated third edition examines accretion as a source of energy in both binary star systems containing compact objects, and in active galactic nuclei. Assuming a basic knowledge of physics, the authors describe the physical processes at work in accretion discs and other accretion flows. New material includes a detailed treatment of disc instabilities, irradiated discs, disc warping, and general accretion flows. The treatment is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers. ... Read more