Product Description
Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier, 6th edition, provides enough content and background in astronomy so the student will be able to follow current developments in astronomy years after they complete the course. The historical development of astronomy is emphasized to show that astronomy, like other sciences, advances through the efforts of many scientists, and to show how present ideas have been developed.
Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier
Tags: developments in astronomy, astronomy, Cosmic, present ideas, cosmic frontier
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This was an excellent book and fun to read. I’ve been a lover of astronomy for 7 years since I was 13 years old! I’ve read dozens of astronomy books and this one really is a great one. It definitely made my class easier and more enjoyable. The CD-ROM helps too! Nice big book with tons of color pictures, and interesting facts. Not boring at all. It was a good choice for the class.
This is quite possibly one of the worst text books I have ever had the displeasure to read. I have no doubt that the author is a person of great intelligence, but his ability to write effectively and provide clear explanations is sorely lacking. The main problem deals with his lack of attention to detail when explaining fundamental concepts.
My main issue comes into play with the problems section of the book, supposedly designed to test one’s knowledge/comprehension of the subject covered in that chapter or building on the preceeding chapters. However, this is not the case. The problems will hint to equations that do not exist in the text or asks questions too ambiguous for an accurate understanding. Answers are given in the back of the book, but no work is shown in how to arrive at those conclusions.
Honestly, I’d get more out of my Astronomy class if I had just been turned loose on the internet with a set of problems to solve.
Don’t waste your money.
This book is a well expresed and enjoyable introduction toastronomy; pictures and graphics, text-boxes on seminal concepts,clear writing do it an amazing reading. Programs and texts on CD arethe precise aid to textbook as a powerful tool for those that want learn about modern astronomy, this thanks to up-to-date references and glossary.
I had to buy this book for a class, but given textbooks in general, this one is perfectly adequate.
Its a good read, clear definitions, emphasis on getting sence of things, and simple relationships (say lifetimes scales as inverse of mass squared) but rather poor problems if one intends to use as a textbook… a 100lvl classes only
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