The Astronomy Bible: The Definitive Guide to the Night Sky and the Universe (Subject Bible) - Softcover

Couper, Heather; Henbest, Nigel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770854827 ISBN 13: 9781770854826

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2015

Synopsis

Interest in astronomy continues to grow stronger for readers of all ages. Recent astronomy titles, like History of Astronomy, have shown consistently strong sales. The Astronomy Bible is a comprehensive guide to the study of what lies beyond our planet. With this book readers can easily navigate the night sky, identify the constellations, and find planets, comets and galaxies.

Topics include:

• The History of Astronomy
• How to Observe the Sky
• The Solar System
• The Moon
• The Planets
• The Sun and the Stars
• Comets and Meteors
• Galaxies, Black Holes and Quasars
• What Lies Beyond...
• Moon and Planet Maps
• Star Finder Charts
• Constellation Maps.

Well priced, informative and fully illustrated, this is a valuable companion for stargazers of all ages.

About this title

About the Author

Heather Couper studied astrophysics at Oxford University. She ran the Greenwich Planetarium and is a past President of both the British Astronomical Association and the Society for Popular Astronomy, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Nigel Henbest was Astronomy Consultant to New Scientist magazine, Editor of the Journal of the British Astronomical Association, and Media Consultant to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

The team were authors of The History of Astronomy.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

What Is Astronomy?

Picture a breathtakingly clear starry, starry night. The heavens are spangled with diamonds, glittering against the black velvet of space . . .

Each of these thousands of stars has a personality; each has its own story to tell.

Our ancestors saw the sky as a starscape, just as we see a landscape on Earth. And, just as we make maps of our world, they joined up the dots in the sky, making them into the constellation patterns we know today. To ensure that farmers and navigators at sea knew the star patterns, they invoked well-known stories to describe them.

Against this tableau of bears, giants, celestial crosses and flying swans, the heavens can give us surprises: an outburst of shooting stars; a comet; the glorious display of the Northern or Southern lights, with their swirling curtains of red and green, or even an exploding star.

Then we have our much-loved Moon, whose face changes from day-to-day as it orbits the Earth. And the planets, from Mercury to Neptune, grace our skies every night of the year. Our local star, the Sun, puts in an appearance every day (weather permitting).

This is astronomy: a celebration of the beauty of the heavens, and a science that now brings in physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology.

But the glory of astronomy is that it's not brain surgery. Anyone can do it.

You can delight in the heavens by lying on your steamer or deck chair and gazing at the stars and planets, or you can bring them closer by using binoculars or a telescope. You could even go the whole way and do an astronomy or astrophysics degree at university. That is what you need to be a pro.

Professional astronomy today is truly awesome. A whole armory of sophisticated and powerful equipment around the world is trained on the sky, as well as massive telescopes in space. Who can forget the "Pillars of Creation" image from the Hubble Space Telescope?

Astronomers launch probes to the planets, and one of them may have found primitive life on Mars. They have discovered objects beyond the imagination of their predecessors: supernovae (exploding stars), white dwarfs, quasars, pulsars (ultra-dense stars whirling around faster than you can blink) and black holes. They have even pinned down the origin of the Universe itself to a Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.

Astronomy is an adventure and this book shows how you can be part of it. The sky's the limit!

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1770854827
• ISBN 13: 9781770854826
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400