Customer Reviews

Astronomy Today (5th Edition)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Chaisson and McMillan here present perhaps the most rigorous of the introductory astronomy textbooks. Their treatment is remarkable because it is broad enough for an introductory course, yet in many respects, detailed enough for a high-level undergraduate course. The primary text includes technical explanations that rarely "dumb down" the science; however, much of the mathematics and detail of the text lie in optional "More Precisely" boxes scattered throughout. Although the less-serious reader may be content to skip those boxes, he or she should beware: this text is not intended for casual readers or non-science majors. Some level of college education in the physical sciences is a must. If your professor is using this text for a freshman astronomy course, you'd do better to check out Seeds' Foundations of Astronomy instead. Its broad scope is similar to that of Chaisson and McMillan, but his text is written more simply.

Of course, this is by no means a graduate-level text. None of the mathematics requires even a rudimentary knowledge of calculus or numerical methods, so topics like stellar structure and evolution are, accordingly, somewhat thin here. Readers looking for a calculus-intensive treatment of this topic that is still suitable for senior undergraduates should try Prialnik's Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution, a simpler alternative to the standard, graduate-level text by Clayton.

One other thing for which Chaisson and McMillan should be commended is their dedication to maintaining the modernity of their text. Throughout the text, results of even relatively recent missions and studies are mentioned. Although my edition (4th, 2002) is now somewhat dated, it was fairly up-to-date at the time of its publishing. I can only assume the authors have maintained this level of quality up through the present edition. The vast majority of the information in any introductory astronomy text, however, is not likely to become outdated anytime soon, so even my dated copy is more than adequate.

Overall, this is an excellent text for readers well-versed in the physical sciences looking to learn introductory astronomy material at a rigorous level; for them, I highly recommend it. Readers approaching the subject from a more casual background will not appreciate the authors' technical language and detail; for them, I highly recommend Seeds.

Designed as a textbook for non science college students, it contains great pictures and well written explanations of all parts of astronomy. I noticed this book while browsing through a bookstore and, much to my surprise, fell in love with it and had to have it. I have learned a lot.

This was a very good book to study from, easy to use, interesting to read. I found the book to be set up with great chapter reviews and quizzes for reinforcing each section. This book is really informative! I do not usually like science but this text made it quite interesting with it's down to earth tone. I have enjoyed studying from it.

This is a textbook, and covers the field very nicely. The organization is from the introduction of Earth, Moon and sky orientation, eclipses, and the like in the first chapter, to covering the Solar System in several chapters, including a chapter devoted to the Earth from a planetary perspective, to examining the life cycle of stars. In my Curriculum, the first part of the book is a 4 hour Planetary course, and the second part is a 4 hour Stellar course. The depth of information presented definitly calls for the 2 courses. The 28 chapters would be very difficult to cover in a single course. This book seems to be very complete as a source for information about the Universe, but is definitely introductory in nature. A professional Astronomer would find it quite basic.

This book was a requirement for my Astronomy class. The information was very helpful in assisting me in learning about the material.