Astronomy A visual guide

Mark A. Garlick, 1968-

Book - 2004

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2nd Floor 520/Garlick Due Apr 13, 2024
Subjects
Published
Buffalo, New York : Firefly Books c2004.
Language
English
Main Author
Mark A. Garlick, 1968- (-)
Physical Description
303 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps, ports. ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes index.
ISBN
9781552979587
  • Introduction
  • Searching the Heavens
  • Ever since humans first gathered in groups, people have searched the heavens
  • Our ancestors looked to the skies for messages from the gods to guide them, celestial signs telling when to reap and sow
  • And even today, thousands of years later, we retain a fascination with the sky, though for different reasons.
  • Astronomy through the ages
  • Sky gods
  • Archaeostronomy
  • Scientific beginnings
  • The development of astronomy tools
  • Observatories
  • Major space centers
  • Space observatories
  • Hubble Space Telescope
  • Radio astronomy
  • Infrared astronomy
  • UV astronomy
  • X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy
  • The space race
  • Mission milestones
  • Space disasters
  • Spacecraft
  • Space stations
  • A history of unmanned probes
  • Solar and lunar probes
  • Asteroid and comet probes
  • Terrestrial planet probes
  • Gas planet probes
  • The Solar System
  • The Solar System is our home in space, a prime piece of celestial real estate some 4600 million years old
  • This is the planetary system that contains the Sun, the nine known planets -- Earth among them -- and countless small but equally interesting chunks of debris called comets and asteroids.
  • Formation of the Solar System
  • The modern Solar System
  • Future of the Solar System
  • The planets
  • Mercury
  • Venus
  • Earth
  • Mars
  • Jupiter
  • Saturn
  • Uranus
  • Neptune
  • Pluto
  • The Sun
  • The Moon
  • Solar eclipses
  • Lunar eclipses
  • Meteors and meteorites
  • Asteroids
  • Comets
  • Beyond Pluto
  • Stars, Galaxies and Celestial Light
  • Beyond the Solar System, things take on an extremely new scale. Stars are strewn across the Milky Way Galaxy like grains of sand many miles apart
  • They share their home with a whole host of celestial lights called nebulae
  • And then, beyond our own galaxy, there are hundreds of billions of others.
  • Celestial clouds
  • What is a star?
  • Lifecycle of a star
  • Binaries, multiples and variables
  • Star clusters
  • Star death: planetary nebulae
  • Star death: supernovae
  • Star death: black wholes
  • Galaxy classification
  • Spiral galaxies
  • Elliptical galaxies
  • Lenticular galaxies
  • Irregular galaxies
  • Active and radio galaxies
  • Quasars
  • Galaxy clusters
  • Galaxy birth
  • Galaxy evolution
  • The Night Sky
  • The night sky is more than just the Moon and a few dozen constellations of stars
  • Planets, nebulae, clusters of stars and even a few galaxies are all visible with the unaided eye
  • And with modest equipment such as a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, the celestial dome takes on a whole new dimension.
  • Understanding the night sky
  • Mapping the heavens
  • The spinning Earth
  • Constellations and the zodiac
  • Beginning astronomy
  • Choosing and using binoculars
  • Choosing and using telescopes
  • Reading the star maps
  • Whole sky overview
  • Monthly stars of the northern skies
  • Monthly stars of the southern skies
  • The Universe
  • Our understanding of the Universe today is very different from what it was just 10 years ago
  • The very fabric of space and time is now seen as inextricably interwoven with a mysterious "dark energy" about which we know next to nothing
  • And this is just one example of the many unknowns that astronomers struggle with daily.
  • Formation of the Universe
  • Evidence for the Big Bang
  • Our place in the Universe
  • Life in the Universe
  • Gamma ray bursters
  • Wormholes
  • Dark matter
  • Dark energy
  • Future of the Universe
  • Factfile
  • Glossary
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Freelance writer and illustrator Garlick, an astrophysicist, has produced an attractive, large-scale book that covers the universe in an order that should appeal to the general reader. He supplements a multitude of colorful images from various ground-based telescopes and space missions with his own diagrams and drawings that are helpful in illustrating physical principles. A brief history of astronomy leads to a survey of observatories (heavy on space missions) before the universe's contents are revealed. Except for the solar system, no topic is covered in depth. (The icon for orbit statistics misleadingly illustrates planetary orbits as highly elliptical, but this is one of the few minor flaws.) After skimming over the remaining objects in the universe (e.g., stars and galaxies), it offers sections on small star maps, choosing binoculars/telescopes, and backyard observing. Garlick briefly hits the current hot topics (wormholes, dark matter, big bang) before providing an interesting set of facts on many astronomical objects and events. This is a volume with high visual impact and clear, although brief, explanations. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers. M.-K. Hemenway University of Texas at Austin

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

Astronomy0 is custom designed to inspire stargazing. Twenty-four sky maps are offered for just such an eventuality. Otherwise, astrophysicist Garlick organizes the universe in a conventional but still beautiful manner, proceeding from the solar system outward to the multibillion-light-year depths probed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Its images are not the only space-age source Garlick taps: pictures from less celebrated observatories also populate the presentations of planets, stars, galaxies, and quasars. More than a glossy gallery, the celestial objects Garlick features are embedded within his framing explanations of the electromagnetic spectrum and big-bang cosmology. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2004 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

Introduction Astronomy has fascinated us as far back in our history as we care to explore. At first, the interest stemmed from religious beliefs. The stars, and planets were considered deities -- indeed, this is true even today. Later, as we learned to domesticate animals and grow crops, the sky served as a celestial agricultural calendar, its constant motions reminding us when to sow and reap. Today, our interest in astronomy is no less profound, and some might argue it is even more deep-rooted, perhaps because we know so much more about it. Or perhaps it's the human desire to explore, and to understand that which we currently do not. Whatever the reason, astronomy is a subject of research at universities across the globe. The more time our scientists spend peering into the depths of space, the greater the wonders -- and mysteries -- they uncover. Exploding stars called supernovae shine, just briefly, with the power of hundreds of billions of our Sun. They produce superdense neutron stars, shiny balls of matter the size of a city, and yet containing the mass of an entire planetary system, spinning hundreds of times every second. Enigmatic black holes twist time and space and suck in light. At the edge of the known Universe, quasars spew jets of charged particles millions of light-years into space. And then there is the material we cannot see but which we know must exist -- dark matter and the newly discovered, bizarre and poorly understood dark energy. Join us on a cosmic journey in which we will meet all of these marvels and many more, in stunning words and pictures. Excerpted from Astronomy: A Visual Guide by Mark A. Garlick All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.