Product Description
- Provides a basic introduction to the topics covered in a beginning astronomy course, with an emphasis on problem-solving methods ordinarily taught on the fly or in ad-hoc tutorials - Closes the gap in student literature by providing a focused, comprehensive presentation of basic astronomical problem-solving techniques - Readers learn by example with the help of more than 200 detailed problems and step-by-step solutions, supplemented with over 100 detailed charts and graphs - Designed to accompany all leading 100-level astronomy textbooks, or to be used as a stand-alone guide for amateur stargazers
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
This book is not recommended. Over the years, I have bought many of the Schaum Outlines and found them carefully written and comprehensive – until this one. Right from the beginning it is fraught with sloppy definitions and careless work.
Example from page 31, Chapter 2 “Sky and Telescopes”
Right Ascension (RA) is analogous to longitude. The ecliptic is the plane of the solar system, or the path that the Sun follows in the sky. Because the axis of the earth is tilted, the ecliptic and the celestial equator are not in the same place, but cross at two locations, called the equinoxes.
Comment – the ecliptic and the celestial equator are planes and intersect in a line.
Qne of these locations, the vernal equinox, is used as the zero point of right ascension.
Comment – but which one? The question is important because Right Ascension is measured from the Vernal Equinox
Example from page 33, on Tides
The Earth experiences one full set of tides each day (two highs and two lows), everywhere on the planet. Tides are caused by gravity. The Sun and the Moon both contribute to tides on Earth
Comment – the reader might wonder why there are two highs per day if the phenomenon is due to the rotation of the earth under the moon. Author gives no hint.
This book really boils down the subject of astronomy into a few rules of thumb. It is good to have some rules of thumb nearby to aid your memory, but historically a Schaum’s outline has been a challenging yet cheap little tome to get you through the rough spots. This book won’t do that unless you are in a high school class. It won’t cut it for a college level astronomy class.
I suggest Textbook on Spherical Astronomy as a good aid. Used copies generally come pretty cheap and it is very useful with good solved examples and problems. Once you finish that try out Astronomical Algorithms. The author shows a real love for his subject with some interesting problems in algorithmic form, but he lacks a great deal in explanation.
Used copies of this outline usually cost under one dollar. Thus if you just need rules of thumb in a handy form, this might be worth that much. Just don’t pay list price for what amounts to a “Pocket Guide to Astronomy”.
This book is an excellent text to compliment any introductory astronomy text. The review material is concise and well written, and the questions follow the same format and reasoning found in many textbooks. A good buy.
All the explanations and solved problems in this book are too simple. I think I made a mistake buying this “tome”….
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