Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide To The Universe (5th Edition) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
A brief, introductory astronomy book designed for readers with little or no scientific background, A Beginner's Guide uses an exceptionally clear writing style. The authors present a broad view of astronomy without complex mathematics, yet the book discusses important concepts without simplification. The book's organization follows the popular and effective “Earth-Out” progression, starting with our planet and then moving through the solar system. A study of the Sun as a model star follows, then the book covers the Milky Way Galaxy, cosmology, and the universe as a whole. Because of its easy-to-read yet comprehensive coverage of astronomy, this book can serve as excellent reference material for those readers interested in learning about our universe. Personal Response System: Through a partnership with Interwrite PRS, this text is available with the PRS clicker system. The Instructor Resource Center on CD-ROM contains conceptual "clicker" questions in PowerPoint.
Paperback: 576 pages
Publisher: Benjamin Cummings; 5 edition (March 6, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 013187165X
ISBN-13: 978-0131871656
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 0.6 x 10.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #54,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #56 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy & Astrophysics #114 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Astronomy #16148 in Books > Reference
For anyone who has a vague interest in astronomy, this would be the book to read. Albeit not entirely simple, this is a relatively straight forward book that uses excellent examples to explain difficult concepts. There are many charts and diagrams. How exactly does a black hole work? What's the difference between a nova and a supernova (not as simple as you might think)? Why do we get meteor showers? There is a bit of mathematics involved, but nothing too intimidating. This is an excellent textbook. Best of all, a CD-ROM is included with lots of multimedia content, study questions, and links to more sources. Avoid other dry textbooks and purchase this one.
I purchased the "International" edition of this book in a local book store so I'm assuming the difference being the conversion to metric units.Although this book was wrapped and I couldn't open the book it immediately stood out from the rest of the books. So this was actually a wild guess but it turned out a real good one.This book is so well written that you need very little knowledge of astronomy in advance. The average person with basic education could pick this one up and let himself/herself be guided from the first chapters where the basics of spectroscopy and gravitation are explained, followed by the A-Z of our neighboring planets, our star and the rest of the milky way, ending with the final chapters that deal with such topics as black holes and general relativity.And what makes it even more great is that a code is included that enables you to view interactive animations and videos on the Pearson website which will clear up things that otherwise may look confusing in still pictures.Very much recommended for people who aren't familiar with the workings of our solar system and universe.They will learn all the basics (and they are a lot) of the universe.But for people who are already familiar with astronomy will find this a good reference.It is also updated with the latest theories and findings, including NASA info from 2008.
This textbook is an adequate basic astronomy text that covers all of the bases and as might be expected has many updates reflecting recent research in the field. However, much of the really cool photography, demonstrations, animations, and illustrations are not in the book but are supposed to be on the web-site to which purchasers are given free access for more than an academic year. Although the book was released months ago, the web-site will not be available before the end of May 2006. The Prentice Hall Product Support people took over three weeks to find this out and were unable to offer any other solution to the problem which was shared by half of my class section. Do not purchase this book; it is a ripoff. If you must buy it, buy an older edition that comes with the CD (which the rest of my section purchased.) You won't have to deal with Prentice-Hall. Even better, try "Discovering the Universe" which is better written and comes with a CD.
This book is exactly what it claims to be: "A Beginners Guide to the Universe." I had a vague interest in astronomy and picked up this book to see if this interest could be further developed. There was information about a wide variety of topics: the planets, telescopes, and, of course, stars. While the reading was not thrilling, it never got too specified which would have made it hard to read. There were also some nice little pieces of history here and there, which I really liked. All in all, a good basic source of information about all aspects of astronomy.
This book is written at a level for non-math or science majors to understand, but that does not mean it is lower quality. Instead of trying to weed out the weak students with challenging problems, this book aims to introduce a ton of different astronomy concepts to the public. I found it very informative. I've taken physical chemistry, and found this astronomy book's explanation of quantum chemistry to be accurate, even though it only covers the very basics. If you want to learn how astronomers determined the size of the solar system or how far away stars are, or how different types of telescopes work and what they are good for, and you want a fast, easy read, this is the book for you. It covers everything. It only goes deep enough to explain stuff, but does not go so deep to get you lost in the details. Each topic is covered in half a page to a page tops, and is just detailed enough not to leave you wondering about anything.
I really enjoyed this book. I rented because I didn't realize how much I'd like astronomy, wish I had just bought it. Lots of good info. Loses a star for me simply for a terrible reference in the back of the book.
For required college reading, this was one of the best science text books I've ever had. The content was easy to understand for the most part, and flowed well from chapter to chapter. It was written in 2013, so it does need updating due to all the events that occurred just the summer of 2015 alone (i.e. Pluto flyby). Otherwise, great astronomy text book!
I am using this book for my Astronomy class and it does have a lot of very good information in it. It is also easy to read and understand. They include pictures and diagrams which also help out. I am 4 weeks into my class and I am glad we are using this book.
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