An Introduction to the Sun and Stars

Are you an amateur astronomer with a scientific or technical background or bent? Would you like to study a college-level introductory astronomy text just for the fun of it? Do you wish for an approach that's not just qualitative, like the majority of American texts, which employ minimal mathematics and mostly confine their more quantitative treatments of subjects as elaborations in a box or sidebar? Do you want a book that fearlessly dives into quantitative analysis of the physics of astronomy – astrophysics – within the main text? Are you a college instructor looking for such a text? If so, and your ambitions extend into differential and integral calculus, then look for a book with "astrophysics" in its title. If you're looking for the middle road, I'd say this is the book for you. To me, it looks like astrophysics without calculus. It's lushly graphical, like all contemporary introductory texts for non-physics majors, and comprehensibly written with the neophyte in mind. But it has considerable depth and a wealth of detail, and looks to me to be a suitable text for a first course in astronomy/astrophysics pitched at those who will go on to take a major or a minor in the subject. Or for an amateur astronomer who'd take such a course if they were back at school. Parenthetically, the spiral binding is a real plus. It’s hard as the devil to get a conventionally bound textbook to lie flat on the table in front of you, or to hold in your lap, but this style is manageable in any situation.

I love astronomy, and this textbook is a great addition to my collection of books about the cosmos. Not too technical, but definitely for someone past elementary school.

I love this book! As advertised on the back cover, this textbook deals with the basic properties of stars. It was exciting for me to work my way thru the book's discussion of topics such as determining star brightness, mass size, distance, distributions in space, how stars change, life-cycles, stellar energy, and various types of stars. The book begins with a study of our sun, then extends to a study of stars in general. Chapter Titles include: CH 1- Seeing the Sun CH 2- The Working Sun CH 3- Measuring Stars CH 4- Comparing Stars CH 5- Star Formation CH 6- Main Sequence Life of Stars CH 7- Stars Beyond The Main Sequence CH 8- The Death of Stars CH 9- Star Remnants One thing I especially enjoyed were the numerous student exercises (over 100!) with complete answers and solutions available at the back of the book- something very important if doing a self-study. The book avoids complex mathematics and does not show detailed derivations but does assume an understanding of basic non-calculus mathematics an undergraduate college student majoring in physics would have. In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Astronomy and Astrophysics. I also highly recommend a similar type companion book "AN INTRODUCTION TO GALAXIES AND COSMOLOGY" (Jones, Lambourne, Serjeant) which follows the same format.

De fácil lectura el inglés en el que está escrito. Basado en cursos universitarios de astronomía y astrofísica. Ciclo de vida y propiedades del Sol, Estrellas (sus tipos) y Agujeros Negros. Enanas Blancas, de Neutrones, Sistemas Binarios, Haces de Rγ. Cada capítulo incluye un sumario y ejercicios cuya solución se recoge al final del libro. Glosario, Tablas, fotos, apéndices (cantidades y unidades, nomenclatura, estrellas más visibles desde la Tierra, etc.) Complementando esta obra, también de la Open University " An Introduction to Galaxies and Cosmology" de M.H.Jones, R.J.A. Lambourne y S. Serjeant.

This book is an excellent, comprehensive, but surprisingly easy to read. It is lavishly illustrated with many notes describing the science or the scientists in greater detail. I assume this book to be a standard textbook but it doesn't always feel like it. If I have any criticism it is that the paperback version is too "soft" so it needs to sit on a desk or similar to be comfortable- definitely not easy to read on the train.

Bien organizado y estructurado. Información gráfica muy buena. Nivel básico en determinados aspectos. Buena introducción a la heliofísica y a la astrofísica estelar.

Excellent. Well written. Authoritative.

An excellent source of general background knowledge to form a good foundation upon which to build. Interesting too for amateur astronomers like myself, although as a physical science graduate I sometimes found myself wanting to see more mathematics. I nevertheless very much enjoyed reading this book and am glad I bought it.