Product Description
This focused, advanced undergraduate text provides broad coverage of astronomy and astrophysics with a strong emphasis on physics. Many researchers, faculty, and graduate students use this book as a reference. This text has an algebra and trigonometry prerequisite, but calculus is preferred. Features: * "Concept Applications" are fully worked-out, in-chapter problems that focus on an important concept found within that chapter. * "Key Equations and Concepts" neatly summarize the important equations and concepts found in each chapter. New to this edition: * Many new problems have been added, most 3rd Edition problems remain. * Physics Prelude serves as preview and preorganizer of the physics at a level appropriate to the book and the course. * Reorganization of Part 3--Chapters on stellar evolution are now consecutive. * Key new astronomical material further enhances the text. * "Hale-Bopp Comet Update" has been added after Chapter 26.
Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics
Tags: hale bopp comet, Hale-Bopp, Physics, text, astronomy and astrophysics, Astrophysics, Chapter
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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my professor, the only reason we even had to buy this book was because Shu’s was written 20 years ago and is slightly out of date….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.
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