Whats a good astronomy reference book

Shep · #1 12-10-2009, 11:45 AM

Any recommendations for a great astronomy reference book?

renormalised (Carl) · #2 12-10-2009, 12:07 PM

There are a heap of good books, but one in particular would be...

"An Atlas of the Southern Sky" by Steve Massey and Steve Quirk

Gives you an introduction to the night sky, plus star charts to find your way around.

"The Backyard Astronomers Guide" is also a good book.

Another handy book to have is the "Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy"

If you want to look through all the books that you might need (or want) go here... Fishpond ... and flip through the pages. There's heaps of books

Octane (Humayun) · #3 12-10-2009, 12:46 PM

http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-As...5311932&sr=1-1

Is an excellent book. It was my prescribed text for an astronomy subject at university. I still thumb through it every now and then.

Mind you, I have the 2000 version of the book. Still great to learn from and it has excellent exercises, too.

Regards,
Humayun

renormalised (Carl) · #4 12-10-2009, 12:51 PM

Humayun, this is an uni undergrad level text. Might be a bit much for Sarah. Does it assume some level of mathematical background at all??

Here's the same book at Fishpond

Octane (Humayun) · #5 12-10-2009, 01:08 PM

It's an undergraduate text, but, it starts from the beginning.

Everything is explained wonderfully.

If I can understand it and do the exercises in the book, then, anyone can.

Regards,
Humayun

Octane (Humayun) · #6 12-10-2009, 01:10 PM

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/Foun...49538724X.aspx

The same book at Betterworldbooks.

I've bought from them before. They are the coolest bookstore on the web to deal with. Even their automated emails are funny.

Regards,
Humayun

Shep · #7 12-10-2009, 09:28 PM

Cheers, thanks guys....i'm not sure how to take the might be a bit much for her comment on the uni text lol But thanks, i'll go have a flip through them now

Rhino1980 (Ryan) · #8 12-10-2009, 10:41 PM

Have you had a look at the Phillip's Complete Guide to Stargazing book? I still use it.

wavelandscott (Scott) · #9 13-10-2009, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shep

Any recommendations for a great astronomy reference book?

Reference for what?

For general background about the hobby and equipment....

Hard to beat the Backyard Astronomers Guide...

For the Moon...

Hard to beat Atlas of the Moon by Charles Woods

etc. etc. with many more options

What would you like to use the text for?

Cheers,

Octane (Humayun) · #10 13-10-2009, 12:57 AM

Sarah,

I reckon you should slap Carl one for that comment.

Regards,
Humayun

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shep

Cheers, thanks guys....i'm not sure how to take the might be a bit much for her comment on the uni text lol But thanks, i'll go have a flip through them now

renormalised (Carl) · #11 13-10-2009, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shep

Cheers, thanks guys....i'm not sure how to take the might be a bit much for her comment on the uni text lol But thanks, i'll go have a flip through them now

Well, for one I don't know the level of maths you've studied to and in some of these textbooks, the maths is extremely heavy. What I didn't want to see is you being put off by all the "hieroglyphics" because you didn't understand it. Some textbooks are good in that they try to avoid much of the mathematical convolutions that many get caught up in, but once you get past the basics, you can't avoid it...the "yucky" maths, that is

Shep · #12 13-10-2009, 10:45 AM

LOL, Thats ok, I knew what you meant

I havent done maths since high school...no wait I did Statistics at uni and that was hard lol! (and just to be honest I deferred uni so cant go passing myself off as a smarty pants with a degree).

In terms of the book, they all look great so far, I checked ebay for some second hand ones but thats the sure sign of a good book if nobody is trying to get rid of theirs!

What I want is just a few things on hand to cover the basics and help me learn, if you can think back to being a newbie there is just so much! And while its all interesting its kind of hard to know where to start or how to work through that much info in a way that will help me get a really good understanding of it all, at the moment I'm just reading a little of this and that and its a bit all over the shop. I've got the 2009 Australian sky guide and an older library book about 1001 things you should know about the universe but its more little facts than something that helps with understanding if that makes sense.

Octane (Humayun) · #13 13-10-2009, 11:00 AM

Sarah,

The Foundations of Astronomy book I have linked to is just the thing you need.

It is nicely chopped up into major sections and introduces topics from a newbie perspective and builds upon that to more difficult topics, all the while remaining an easy to read reference.

If you get it and don't like it, I'll buy it off you.

Regards,
Humayun

renormalised (Carl) · #14 13-10-2009, 11:42 AM

Here's another good uni level text that has some maths but not so full on... Universe. It's very comprehensive but won't tie you down with too much "ancient Egyptian"

. It's one of the texts I use for my course.

Shep · #15 13-10-2009, 01:49 PM

Ohhhhh The dilemmas of choosing one now! LOL

I'll let you all know what I go with. It'll probably be the cheapest one that covers most :p