Customer Reviews

Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics (Saunders Golden Sunburst Series)

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

 

 

Don't bother with this book. I used it for an intro-level astro course, along with Frank Shu's Physical Universe. In the exact words of my professor, the only reason we even had to buy this book was because Shu's was written 20 years ago and is slightly out of date.... we used Shu for important concepts and this for basically nothing other than revising what is in Shu with more up-to-date information. This book is kind of expensive to be simply a tool for updating Shu (which, btw, is a great book)... also, the high number of errors and typos really make this book a "don't bother"

This is not a MEATY text. It is a good INTRODUCTORY text that provides a decent overview of general astronomy, including: basic celestial mechanics, the solar system, absorption/emission, stars, H-R diagram, galaxies, interstellar medium, evolution, Hubble's law, active galaxies, cosmology. The level of detail seems appropriate for a survey course. For example, the authors do a good job of describing basic spectral issues (absorption, emission, line broadening, Boltzmann, the Saha equation, optical depth, etc), but they do not provide a detailed discussion of stellar atmospheres. If you have had an introduction to astronomy and want more depth, then look at Bohm-Vitense's books, Elmgreen's Galaxies & Galactic Structure, etc.

I used this book in an independent study class in astronomy and astrophysics while I was an undergraduate. With the exception of the some errors in the equations in the opacity section I found this book to be clearly written and not too difficult. You will need to know your college physics and some math but that should be expected since this is not a descriptive text. If you want a descriptive astronomy text search elsewhere, if you want an introductory astrophysics text this is a good choice.

This book is a good compromise between the less analytical texts and some of the books geared toward astonomy majors. It is not a great book but I felt it was up to date and comprehensive. One note though, the authors assume you have a good grounding in undergrad math and physics. On several occasions I had to pull out one of my math or physics texts to review a subject so I could understand the material being presented.

Zeilik & Gregory was the assigned text for my Astrophysics course. Overall, I found the book to be excellent in its presentation of the material and its organization. The authors are able to strike that rare (in physics textbooks) balance between narrative text and derived mathematics. In addition, this book uses the almost universal Meter-Kilogram-Second metric system, rather than the antiquated cemtimeter-gram-second system which is common in astronomy. My only complaint with the book is that it could have had more detailed and clearly written example problems. Even with this minor flaw, it's still an excellent book.

I had to use this book for a year. It's badly written with numerous errors and typos. Equations are written in a non-user-friendly format. Difficult concepts are not very well explained. Practice problems are sometimes very ambiguous. My professor even said this isn't the best book in the world. The only good thing about it is that it's directed toward a first-year astronomy audience. But it's worth it to buy a slightly harder book and understand it better. If you need it for a class, I guess you're stuck! But there are better books out there. Try "An Introduction to Modern Astrphysics" by Carroll and Ostile.

This book was the textbook for my introductory Astronomy course and we found than many of the constants were inconsistent in different sections and/or inaccurate. One specific example, the radius of earth in the appendix has the last two numbers reversed. There are numerous others.

i think this book is good if you already know a bit about astronomy and physics. it covers the topics it wants to very well, and very in depth. however, it has no logical sequencing of the chapters, and thus is a wonderful reference text, but not so great when it comes to learning in a call

Good book. Well laid out and clear. The only thing that it lacks is a solution manual or answer key, otherwise a fantastic text.

This book is an ok reference book, if you've already seen the material in the book. The price is way too high. Whatever you do don't pay 180 bucks for this book. The preliminary section is weirdly way harder than the main text of the book. I had as my freshman astrophysics course text book and nearly dropped the course because the prelimary section was so scary. My biggest problem is the book uses MKS not CGS units. This would make the book more acessible to the reader with a physics (but no astronomy) background, but only does a disservice to the reader who wishes to use this book as a bridge to more advanced astronomical literature.