Astronomy: A Physical Perspective (Paperback)

by Marc L. Kutner (Author) "Our curiosity about the world around us is most naturally manifested when we look up at the night sky..." (more)
Key Phrases: collapse perpendicular, hotter blackbody, minimum energy orbit, Solar System, Milky Way, Orion Nebula (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Instructor's Manual with Solutions available. -- The publisher, John Wiley & Sons --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"This excellent book provides a very thorough and up-to-date introduction to astronomy and astrophysics... [T]his well-written, comprehensive work would be an excellent choice for an introductory course on modern astrophysics for astronomy and physics majors. Highly recommended."
Choice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (August 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521529271
• ISBN-13: 978-0521529273
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #428,840 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally good book with a few big flaws, December 14, 2004

By	K. Green - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book offers a good introduction to astronomy, with chapters devoted to everything from telescope technology to general relativity and cosmology. Its explanations are generally clear and instructive, although the sections on subjects like nuclear and particle physics could be a little overwhelming to the uninitiated - it's simply a lot of information to present in a relatively small amount of space, but the author does a decent job. The book gives a good understanding of the science aspect of astronomy, but rushes through some of the technicalities, with, for example, a surprisingly brief and uninformative section (3 pages!) on astronomical coordinates and timekeeping.

My big complaint about this book is that it is chock full of errors! Some entire diagrams need to be replaced, and more importantly, there are way too many errors in the equations and exercises. As a student with weekly problem sets to get through, I found this quite frustrating. In one case, an entire exercise was an error and had to be replaced with a different question. If you're thinking of using this book for a course, make sure you find the list of after press corrections, and hand it out on the first day of class.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introductory astronomy textbook, November 20, 2004

By	Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I like this up-to-date textbook. I like the explanations, the diagrams, the marvellous photographs, the exercises. It covers pretty much everything I'd want as a teacher or student, and in well under 600 pages. Maybe the parts I liked best were the sections on relativity and cosmology. But it was all just great, as it sailed through telescopes, stars, spectra, binaries,the Sun, stellar evolution, the Milky Way, star formation, the interstellar medium, normal galaxies, active galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the Sun's planetary system. The treatment of the solar planetary system included planetary atmospheres, surfaces, and interiors. It even talked about planetary resonances.

One weakness, to my way of thinking, was the overly brief appendix on astronomical coordinates and timekeeping. And there were a couple of minor topics I would have wanted to see mentioned. One was Gamma Ray Bursters. Another was Blue Stragglers.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A very poor textbook, December 6, 2005

By	Ballpoint Legs - See all my reviews

This review is from: Astronomy: A Physical Perspective (Hardcover)

This text was assigned for my second year astronomy course. While I'm told that it is rather difficult to find a suitable text for the course, this one sure doesn't fit the bill.

First of all, after being raised on MKS (meters, kilograms, seconds) units since the sixth grade, it would be nice to stay consistent with that; this book uses CGS (centimeters, grams, seconds) units. Although this didn't seem like a big deal initially, it becomes bothersome when converting constants and generally known scientific values to suit the more awkward CGS system.

Second, the number of errors contained therein are absolutely astonishing; there are mistakes in the formulas given in the instructive portions of the book, in the practice problems, and even in the constants listed (very inconveniently) in the appendix. For example, the gravitational constant, G, was given units of "dyne cm^2 g^2", when it should have been "(dyne cm^2)/g^2". Speaking from a student's perspective, it is extremely frustrating and defeating to spend hours attempting to solve a problem, only to find that the formula you are supposed to prove is missing a key component or is outright misleading (i.e., a formula missing an "R," refers to the "mass of a proton" when it is supposed to read "mass of a neutron," and declares that pi must be approximated to exactly three (!). That's a sum total of three errors in one just one question.)

Instructors, I would advise you to look for a more user-friendly textbook with a more intuitive layout, clearer diagrams, and and fewer errors.

Students who are unfortunate enough to be assigned this text, my heart goes out to you.