astronomy

As an astronomy student at the University of Colorado, I have used "The Cosmic Perspective" as a text book for two of my classes (one on stars and galaxies, and one on the solar system). This book is perfect for both: the text is clear and full of insight; the illustrations and photographs are abundant and extremely professional, and they complement the text superbly; the sections called "Mathematical Insight" give the reader a clear understanding of the science involved, and the sections called "Common Misconceptions" are as fun to read as they are informative.

I have read this book cover-to-cover, and although it is intended as a text book, it reads like many of the very popular science books I have read. If you enjoyed reading Sagan's "Cosmos", Gribbin's "In Search of the Big Bang", Feynman's "The Character of Physical Law", Lederman's "The God Particle" or Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", you will enjoy this very well-conceived and well-written book.

"The Cosmic Perspective" is very comprehensive. Besides covering the fundamental concepts of astronomy (such as light as the cosmic messenger; universal motion; celestial timekeeping; and telescopes), this book details how stars are born, evolve and die; the fundamentals of relativity; how the galaxies were formed, as well as how our solar system was formed; how vast space really is; how we know the distances to various objects in our universe; and how we know what happened at the early moments of the Big Bang. Since this book is new (published in 1999), it contains the latest facts and the latest thinking of modern astronomy. This book captured my interest and my enthusiasm the moment I began reading it.

For beginner or intermediate astronomy students, this book not only has all topics covered, but touches on many other branches of science that are essential to the understanding of astronomy. Clear, concise explanations with very careful attention to units in sample problems make many basic science concepts understandable. The depth of current knowledge covered on a wide variety of astronomical topics is remarkable for inclusiion in just one book. The graphic diagrams, drawings, charts, illustrations, and photographs are also outstanding in what they add to one's ability to visualize the material presented. Overall, this is by far the best astronomy book I've seen.