Textbook on Spherical Astronomy [Paperback]

W. M. Smart (Author), R. M. Green (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521291801 | ISBN-13: 978-0521291804 | Publication Date: July 29, 1977 | Edition: 6

This well-established textbook gives a general but comprehensive introduction to positional astronomy. Originally based on the author's lecture courses at Cambridge University, it is intended primarily for undergraduates, but, due to its comprehensive nature, it is a very useful reference text for research workers in many branches of astronomy and space physics. The author considers the night sky as the celestial sphere and powerfully exploits the methods of spherical geometry. Most problems in which the precise determination of a heavenly body's position in the sky is important are considered in theoretical detail, and the necessary formulae are derived to a precision that is sufficient for all but the most specialist purposes. The present revision has ensured that the terminology and treatment correspond precisely to current astronomical practice. A guiding principle has been to re-establish compatibility with the Astronomical Ephemeris and, to a lesser extent, with the fuller explanations of the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. Fairly frequent comments added to the text indicate the sometimes modified relevance of the subject matter to modern astronomy. A number of additional exercises help to illustrate the new material.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

This new revision of a standard work gives a general but comprehensive introduction to positional astronomy. Useful for researchers as well as undergraduates.

Product Details

• Paperback: 431 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 6 edition (July 29, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521291801
• ISBN-13: 978-0521291804
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #692,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The" reference for position astronomy, March 22, 2000

By 

Bernardo Vargas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Textbook on Spherical Astronomy (Paperback)

If you are interested in any subject of position astronomy (motion of the moon, stellar navigation, astrometry, etc.) you must stat by reading this book. Eventhough it is basically a reviewed old text, it is still the most concise and complete reference on the area.

It contains from the basic formulas of spherical trigonometry to the full explanation of the conditions necesary to observe a solar eclipse, or principles of star parallax measurement, for example.

I think this book is useful not only for amateur and pro astronomers, but also for undergraduate mathemathicians and physicists, and even for highschoolers.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsurpassed, January 8, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Textbook on Spherical Astronomy (Paperback)

Textbooks that remain in print for more than a few years with their contents essentially intact are a rare commidity nowadays. The fact that this little book has been around for almost 75 years in essentially its same form for such a period is a testament both to the timelessness of the material it contains and to the expository abilities of its author.

Written by William Marshall Smart, a prominent British professor of astronomy and a prolific writer on the subject, it covers almost all aspects of positional astronomy, including the geometry of the celestial sphere, co-ordinate systems, measurement of time, precession, nutation, aberration, reduction of astronomical photographs, and even eclipses and occultations. Written in Smart's pedantic but eminently readable style, it is easily consumed in a few days or even hours by anyone with a working knowledge of college algebra, trigonometry, and elementary calculus. No other work on the subject has surpassed it for clarity and rigor. Consider that another of Smart's books, "Celestial Mechanics" (Longmans, 1953; reprinted 1960), is so revered that it now sells for several hundred dollars or more on the used book market (despite its rather common availability).

After Smart's death in 1975, revisions for "Spherical Astronomy" were undertaken by R. Green (author of a separate book on the subject) in order to keep it up-to-date with current astronomical practice, mainly in the area of accurate timekeeping in the face of the variable rate of rotation of the earth.

A classic little book whose reading (and re-reading) is like sipping a fine old Claret from the wine cellar.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The besto book in spherical astronomy, July 7, 2005

By 

Guillermo Mallen (Mexico DF, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Textbook on Spherical Astronomy (Paperback)

I've used this book many years ago. In it learned lots on interesting things, including the forecast of solar eclipses and occultations of stars and other bodies by the Moon, planets, asteroids, etc.

I have in my bookshelf many other spherical astronomy books, most of them newer, but I always use Smart's book.

Long ago I lost my copy of the original book and felt really sad. Thanks God there is this a reedition of that clasic.

Congratulations for that, good books should never die.