Astronomy: Principles and Practice

Description

This fourth edition of Roy and Clarke's classic textbook has been updated and expanded to include the many developments in modern astronomy and experimental methods. "Astronomy: Principles and Practice" provides a comprehensive and systematic treatment of astronomy, including the essential physical and mathematical groundwork. Divided into four main parts, this volume introduces the concepts and historical development of astronomy, presents a full and detailed course on positional measurements and celestial mechanics, and describes the techniques and instrumentation of astronomical observation and measurement. Suitable for undergraduate students in physics and astronomy, the authors have included many worked examples, problems with answers, a wide selection of practical projects and a directory of relevant and important astronomy web sites. The companion volume "Astronomy: Structure of the Universe" discusses the Solar System, the astrophysics of stars, interstellar matter, galactic structure and cosmology. Combined these two volumes provide a complete course companion.

"I'm pleased to see that the strengths of the old version have been retained (i.e. the sections on positional astronomy are largely unaltered) and the book has been brought up to date with, for example, the sections on CCDs and modern telescopes. I will have absolutely no hesitation in continuing to recommend that the ~50 students in my first-year "Celestial Sphere" course buy this book." -- Vik Dhillon, Sheffield University "It claims to be written for students working for degrees in astronomy, and as such it is admirably acceptable. There are four main sections - an introduction, which is an excellent survey of the fundamentals, written in a clear and well-balanced way; the celestial sphere and elementary celestial mechanics; observational techniques, and finally a number of suggestions for experimental work. But this book should not be dismissed by those whose grasp of mathematics is not up to university standard. We all, at times, want to go deeper into some aspects of the subject and will find much of help and value in this book, even if we miss out the formulae and calculations. Members will find themselves returning to it again and again for help with those really searching questions. A book worth considering. -- Jeffrey Barham, Popular Astronomy, January-March 2004