madbadgalaxyman
16-03-2013, 09:31 AM
There are many ways to get detailed “semi-expert” knowledge about the science of galaxies.
Here are a few shortcuts and resources and timesavers which can save you a lot of time and effort in your quest to become a “semi-professional extragalactic astronomer”. These are the resources which I wish I’d had available at the time I made the decision to seriously study the science of galaxies.
I have not covered, in this list, resources about how to learn galaxy classification and morphology, nor do I cover many resources relating to (online, and also on paper) Galaxy Catalogs and galaxy databases and Atlases of Galaxies .
If you are interested, I can also provide a booklist of the best-written books about how to make scientific (instrumental) observations, with a focus on the easier texts; those books that can be understood by people having a good Australian Year 12 maths and physics, or people having a few units of maths and physics at the university level.
In this list, you won’t find anything about making non-scientific (“Oooh…look at that pretty object!”) observations of galaxies!
__________________________
SUGGESTION 1
Read some good textbooks about galaxies!
At amazon.com, I have reviewed just about all of the available textbooks, ranging from introductory texts through to the upper-undergraduate (= third year university) level.
Just google on “Amazon.com: profile for R. A. Lang” to find my reviews!
((
But I have not reviewed, and I do not own, the following books:
- “Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology : An Introduction” by Peter Schneider (published by Springer). This text looks promising…..though “looks can deceive”.
- “Shrouds of the Night : Masks of the Milky Way (….)” by David Block and Kenneth Freeman. This is a very well-regarded Introductory book by Ken Freeman, Australia’s own “great extragalactic astronomer”
- “The Road to Galaxy Formation” by William C. Keel (Springer-Praxis books). I like Bill Keel; he is a good communicator, and the Springer-Praxis books have the goal of giving you very detailed “physical” knowledge, but without excessive technicalities or a lot of high-level mathematics.
))
Note: Mr Bad Galaxy Man knows, from long experience, that it is a waste of time trying to find out about galaxies from general astronomy textbooks, because the knowledge presented therein is: too often sketchy, nearly always out of date, or even just plain wrong.
SUGGESTION 2
Read all of the Galaxies, Milky Way, Interstellar Medium, Stellar Astronomy, and Star Formation entries in “The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia”(1992)(ISBN: 0442263643) edited by Stephen P. Maran. This is a hefty (1000 pages) & comprehensive & very-detailed Encyclopedia of Astronomy, with densely-typed articles 2 or 3 pages long, and each article is written by an expert in her/his astronomical specialty. Secondhand copies are available quite cheaply on the internet. The readership level is suitable for a persistent (very highly motivated) mid-level to upper-level amateur astronomer, or for a member of the public with a really solid background in science, or for an undergraduate student of physics and astrophysics.
SUGGESTION 3
Read articles in the Level5 database.
The NED “Level5” online database contains gigantic numbers of freely-accessible review papers about the many and varied aspects of galaxies. It also contains: some atlases & catalogs of galaxies, a good number of very broad and far-ranging “overview” articles deliberately chosen so as to be relatively easy reading, and a very useful glossary of astronomical terms. Some of the articles in “Level5” are at a very high level (Mid-to-upper-level Undergraduate through to graduate), while others of them are fairly accessible to the highly-motivated upper-level amateur astronomer who has a really serious curiosity about galaxies.
The Level5 website:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5
SUGGESTION 4
The review papers in the “Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics” (= ARAA) are always very good. They are often the Best & Clearest & Most Comprehensive overview and description of the existing scientific knowledge, for most of the many and varied topics existing within the science of astronomy.
If you go to the website of the ARAA : :
http://astro.annualreviews.org (http://astro.annualreviews.org/)
then you will find that you have to pay a small fortune for each article. However, a google search, or an http://arxiv.org (http://arxiv.org/) search, or an http://adswww.harvard.edu (http://adswww.harvard.edu/) search, for the same article, very often finds a “free to access” version of an article.
SUGGESTION 5
Read about the latest Galactic and Extragalactic research in the proceedings of the IAU Symposia.
The proceedings (write-ups) of International Astronomical Union meetings are a good and concise resource for quickly updating yourself about the latest research in Milky Way and Extragalactic astronomy, because they concisely summarize the most recent results being produced, leaving it up to you if you want to look up the intricate details elsewhere. The online access policy is remarkably liberal, as you can access .pdf files of all but about the last two years of these symposia : :
- Go to : http://journals.cambridge.org (http://journals.cambridge.org/)
- Then click on “Browse by title”.
- Find “Proceedings of The International Astronomical Union” in the list of journals, and then click on it.
- click on “back issues”
ADDENDUM:
“Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics”(2001)(editor: Paul Murdin)(ISBN: 0750304405 )(3670 pages)
(This is not the same encyclopedia as the similarly named work edited by Maran)
This massive 4-volume work contains a clearly written & comprehensive & very useful collection of articles that can provide a detailed understanding of galaxies, with some of the articles written at a level suitable for a diligent and determined Mid-to-upper Level amateur astronomer. Unfortunately, this remarkable reference work costs about 700 dollars, and online access is also very expensive.
Note: It may well be possible to get some of these articles for free on the internet, though you could be violating copyright if you do so.
Here are a few shortcuts and resources and timesavers which can save you a lot of time and effort in your quest to become a “semi-professional extragalactic astronomer”. These are the resources which I wish I’d had available at the time I made the decision to seriously study the science of galaxies.
I have not covered, in this list, resources about how to learn galaxy classification and morphology, nor do I cover many resources relating to (online, and also on paper) Galaxy Catalogs and galaxy databases and Atlases of Galaxies .
If you are interested, I can also provide a booklist of the best-written books about how to make scientific (instrumental) observations, with a focus on the easier texts; those books that can be understood by people having a good Australian Year 12 maths and physics, or people having a few units of maths and physics at the university level.
In this list, you won’t find anything about making non-scientific (“Oooh…look at that pretty object!”) observations of galaxies!
__________________________
SUGGESTION 1
Read some good textbooks about galaxies!
At amazon.com, I have reviewed just about all of the available textbooks, ranging from introductory texts through to the upper-undergraduate (= third year university) level.
Just google on “Amazon.com: profile for R. A. Lang” to find my reviews!
((
But I have not reviewed, and I do not own, the following books:
- “Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology : An Introduction” by Peter Schneider (published by Springer). This text looks promising…..though “looks can deceive”.
- “Shrouds of the Night : Masks of the Milky Way (….)” by David Block and Kenneth Freeman. This is a very well-regarded Introductory book by Ken Freeman, Australia’s own “great extragalactic astronomer”
- “The Road to Galaxy Formation” by William C. Keel (Springer-Praxis books). I like Bill Keel; he is a good communicator, and the Springer-Praxis books have the goal of giving you very detailed “physical” knowledge, but without excessive technicalities or a lot of high-level mathematics.
))
Note: Mr Bad Galaxy Man knows, from long experience, that it is a waste of time trying to find out about galaxies from general astronomy textbooks, because the knowledge presented therein is: too often sketchy, nearly always out of date, or even just plain wrong.
SUGGESTION 2
Read all of the Galaxies, Milky Way, Interstellar Medium, Stellar Astronomy, and Star Formation entries in “The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia”(1992)(ISBN: 0442263643) edited by Stephen P. Maran. This is a hefty (1000 pages) & comprehensive & very-detailed Encyclopedia of Astronomy, with densely-typed articles 2 or 3 pages long, and each article is written by an expert in her/his astronomical specialty. Secondhand copies are available quite cheaply on the internet. The readership level is suitable for a persistent (very highly motivated) mid-level to upper-level amateur astronomer, or for a member of the public with a really solid background in science, or for an undergraduate student of physics and astrophysics.
SUGGESTION 3
Read articles in the Level5 database.
The NED “Level5” online database contains gigantic numbers of freely-accessible review papers about the many and varied aspects of galaxies. It also contains: some atlases & catalogs of galaxies, a good number of very broad and far-ranging “overview” articles deliberately chosen so as to be relatively easy reading, and a very useful glossary of astronomical terms. Some of the articles in “Level5” are at a very high level (Mid-to-upper-level Undergraduate through to graduate), while others of them are fairly accessible to the highly-motivated upper-level amateur astronomer who has a really serious curiosity about galaxies.
The Level5 website:
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5
SUGGESTION 4
The review papers in the “Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics” (= ARAA) are always very good. They are often the Best & Clearest & Most Comprehensive overview and description of the existing scientific knowledge, for most of the many and varied topics existing within the science of astronomy.
If you go to the website of the ARAA : :
http://astro.annualreviews.org (http://astro.annualreviews.org/)
then you will find that you have to pay a small fortune for each article. However, a google search, or an http://arxiv.org (http://arxiv.org/) search, or an http://adswww.harvard.edu (http://adswww.harvard.edu/) search, for the same article, very often finds a “free to access” version of an article.
SUGGESTION 5
Read about the latest Galactic and Extragalactic research in the proceedings of the IAU Symposia.
The proceedings (write-ups) of International Astronomical Union meetings are a good and concise resource for quickly updating yourself about the latest research in Milky Way and Extragalactic astronomy, because they concisely summarize the most recent results being produced, leaving it up to you if you want to look up the intricate details elsewhere. The online access policy is remarkably liberal, as you can access .pdf files of all but about the last two years of these symposia : :
- Go to : http://journals.cambridge.org (http://journals.cambridge.org/)
- Then click on “Browse by title”.
- Find “Proceedings of The International Astronomical Union” in the list of journals, and then click on it.
- click on “back issues”
ADDENDUM:
“Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics”(2001)(editor: Paul Murdin)(ISBN: 0750304405 )(3670 pages)
(This is not the same encyclopedia as the similarly named work edited by Maran)
This massive 4-volume work contains a clearly written & comprehensive & very useful collection of articles that can provide a detailed understanding of galaxies, with some of the articles written at a level suitable for a diligent and determined Mid-to-upper Level amateur astronomer. Unfortunately, this remarkable reference work costs about 700 dollars, and online access is also very expensive.
Note: It may well be possible to get some of these articles for free on the internet, though you could be violating copyright if you do so.