Astronomy Today Volume 2: Stars And Galaxies (8th Edition) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
With Astronomy Today, Eighth Edition, trusted authors Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan communicate their excitement about astronomy, delivering current and thorough science with insightful pedagogy. The text emphasizes critical thinking and visualization, and it focuses on the process of scientific discovery, teaching students “how we know what we know.” The Eighth Edition has been thoroughly updated with the latest astronomical discoveries and theories and improved pedagogical features. This package consists of: Astronomy Today, Volume 2: Stars and Galaxies, Eighth Edition—Focuses primarily on stars and stellar evolution for a 1-term course. Includes Chapters 1–5 and 16–28.
Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Pearson; 8 edition (September 28, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321909720
ISBN-13: 978-0321909725
Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 1.1 x 10.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #46,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #47 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy & Astrophysics #98 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Astronomy #13858 in Books > Reference
This book is really outstanding! It contains 757 pages of text (not counting the preface and appendix), about 480 (mostly quite smallish) photos, some 400 drawings/figures/illustrations and almost 50 tables. The writing style is very clear, not at all dry or overtly technical. It is a joy to read this book. I know of no other book that clarifies all kind of astronomical subjects as thoroughly and understandably as this book (and I did read many books on astronomy.....). Highly recommended!
Written for non-science college students, this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in astronomy. Its breath, clarity, superb illustrations and software are first rate. Prentice Hall appears to hvae repurposed this text for amateur astronomers in another book, Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe, which is nearly identical, albeit abbreviated in areas. Both books are an excellent value and users need to decide whether the academic version is worth more. Having read "Astronomy Today" cover to cover, there is much than can be shortened, such as when the authors discuss difficulties encountered in obtaining astronomy knowledge, rather than the knowledge itself. Its generous illustrations reinforce much of the text, taking this philosophy further, it could have been that much of the text could take a back seat to more detailed illustrations. Nevertheless a marvelous job!Marvin Gozum, MD
I have had a lifetime love of Astronomy but have lacked the mathmatical background for a thorough understanding. Most popular books on the subject rarely cover the field in the manner that I desire. Astronomy Today is a textbook for a beginning course in astronomy at the college level and does, in fact, cover a great deal of information without the need for mathmatical knowledge. The authors express their ideas and information in clear, concise language and clearly manifest an enthusiasm for their subject. I have enjoyed the book immensely.
I purchased this text for our daughter, who is taking an introductory astronomy class. I never had the chance to take such a class myself but always had an interest in astronomy, so I started reading some of the chapters. To my great satisfaction, it was actually very well written, concise, and seemed to be up to date on the some of the more interesting and current issues in astronomy- dark matter/energy, inflationary universes, black holes, etc. It has an excellent explanation of black body radiation and how the emission profile of a celestial object gives can disclose both its temperature and much about its composition. It also takes care to show exactly what portion of the light specturm is used to generate each image (of which there are many beautiful ones included), which really helps understand why optical telescopes can't solve all the scientific mysteries (the center of the Milky Way can't even be seen in the visual spectrum due to dust). It also used a minimal amount of math, which takes away nothng from the points made. As a parent tired of forking over hundreds of dollars for textbooks that unnecessarily change edition every year (how is that possible, I ask?), I did not mind paying for this one.Kudos to the authors for a very readable and useful text. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn about astronomy but never had the opportunity. The only material that I thought might be improved was the section covering the H-R diagrams of star evolution- it would help to have a simple diagram of a typical star as it progresses through the main sequence and beyond, gaining or losing mass. the luminosity and temperature portions of the process are well described, but it's a bit hard to put it all together. Is the H-R diagram really the most useful way to understand star evolution? Regardless, this book rates as an outstanding science textbook in my opinion.
This book is designed to be the astronomy book that non-science majors would use to meet their one-year of science requirement as part of their undergraduate degree. As such it is written without the mathematics content that would be normal in a course aimed at astronoly or physics students. In addition, this particular book has several advantages. To identify just a few:1. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on teaching the scientific method. This area has been strengthened in this edition because (I'm guessing) the current attempts by the un-intelligent design people to disparage scientific theories.2. Revised to include the latest discoveries being made by the Mars rovers and the down grading of poor Pluto to a minor planet.3. Updating the current theories regarding dark matter and dark energy.In summary this is a well written, well illustrated text, ideally suited for the non-scientists.
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