A unique chronicle of a young man who at one time was both nerd and jock, Tyson’s memoir could well inspire other similarly curious youngsters to pursue their dreams.Like many athletic kids he played baseball, won medals in track and swimming, and was captain of his high school wrestling team. But at the same time he was setting up a telescope on winter nights, taking an advanced astronomy course at the Hayden Planetarium, and spending a summer vacation at an astronomy camp in the Mojave Desert.Eventually, his scientific curiosity prevailed, and he went on to graduate in physics from Harvard and to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia. There followed postdoctoral research at Princeton. In 1996, he became the director of the Hayden Planetarium, where some twenty-five years earlier he had been awed by the spectacular vista in the sky theater.Tyson pays tribute to the key teachers and mentors who recognized his precocious interests and abilities, and helped him succeed. He intersperses personal reminiscences with thoughts on scientific literacy, careful science vs. media hype, the possibility that a meteor could someday hit the Earth, dealing with society’s racial stereotypes, what science can and cannot say about the existence of God, and many other interesting insights about science, society, and the nature of the universe.Now available in paperback with a new preface and other additions, this engaging memoir will enlighten and inspire an appreciation of astronomy and the wonders of our universe.

    Levy s Guides to the StarsA Jumbo 16-inch Diameter Star Chart Designed Especially for Beginners & Novices! Ideal for Individuals, Families and Teachers! Large Format makes it easy to read! The David H. Levy's Guides to the Stars is an easy and and practical star chart to help navigate the night sky. This convenient device will greatly aid beginners and novices in their celestial exploration. It is simple to use. The stars in your night sky appear in the large oval after rotating the plastic circles to your observing time and date. Then, start matching the brightest stars in the sky with the largest on the chart. You ll be identifying constellation in minutes! Let David H. Levy s Guide to the Stars take you to the stars and beyond. Included are 25 binocular objects to help you get started exploring the Universe. Great gift idea.David H. Levy is one of the biggest names in astronomy. He has discovered 21 comets and written over 25 popular astronomy books. As the science editor for Parade magazine, he is responsible for bringing topical science to millions. Over 22 innovations. No other Star Chart can compare! Featuring... 16-inch diameter makes it the easy to read. Over twice the area of others. Can be used throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Packed with astronomy facts and simple, clear instructions. Black stars on a white background - the preferred color scheme recommended by amateur astronomers for finding stars. Star positions are good for a lifetime. MADE IN THE USA of 100% durable plastic. Ink cannot be scratched off. Includes...Website support of happenings in the night sky (whatsouttonight.com), historical timeline, information about the Moon, yearly meteor shower table, factual information on the planets, tour of the spring/winter constellations, binocular & telescope objects to observe, plus more!

    The first edition of this best-selling book received worldwide acclaim for its lucid style and wide-ranging exploration of the universe. This eagerly awaited second edition updates and greatly extends the first with seven new chapters that explore early scientific cosmology, Cartesian and Newtonian world systems, cosmology after Newton and before Einstein, special relativity, observational cosmology, inflation and creation of the universe. All chapters conclude with a section entitled Reflections containing provocative topics that will foster lively debate. The new Projects section, also at the end of each chapter, raises questions and issues to challenge the reader.

    In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

    This brief, beautifully illustrated text - one of the briefest available for the course - offers concise coverage of a wide range of astronomical topics. The authors have struck a balance between the fundamental concepts and the exciting topics at the forefront of astronomy, conveying the spirit of contemporary astronomy within a big picture context. The authors emphasize the central theme of origins in this text, first by singling out specifics in the headings of each chapter and then by dealing with a variety of relevant material in the text itself. An early discussion of the scientific method stresses an importance on the verification of observations, and sets the stage for the text's consistent focus on astronomy as a science.

    Emerging now from modern science is a unified scenario of the cosmos, including ourselves as sentient beings, based on the time-honored concept of change. From galaxies to snowflakes, from stars and planets to life itself, we are beginning to identify an underlying ubiquitous pattern penetrating the fabric of all the natural sciences--a sweepingly encompassing view of the order and structure of every known class of object in our richly endowed universe.This is the subject of Eric Chaisson's new book. In Cosmic Evolution Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. Guided by notions of beauty and symmetry, by the search for simplicity and elegance, by the ambition to explain the widest range of phenomena with the fewest possible principles, Chaisson designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures. He shows us that neither new science nor appeals to nonscience are needed to understand the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary story, from quark to quasar, from microbe to mind.

    This undergraduate textbook provides a clear, methodical introduction to the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Starting from general principles and axioms, step-by-step coverage leads students to a global, comprehensive understanding of the subject. Throughout, the book uniquely places emphasis on the basic physical principles governing stellar structure and evolution. All processes are explained in clear and simple terms with all the necessary mathematics included. Exercises and their full solutions allow students to test their understanding. This book requires only a basic background in physics and mathematics and assumes no prior knowledge of astronomy. It provides a stimulating introduction for undergraduates in astronomy, physics, planetary science and applied mathematics taking a course on the physics of stars.

    A great home reference!

    The Universe Unveiled uniquely focuses on these artifacts and devices resulting from the attempts to decipher the Universe from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Beautiful, full-color photographs capture these extremely rare and sometimes unusual curios. Beginning with the discovery of ways to keep time, The Universe Unveiled depicts the shift from an Earth-centered understanding of the Universe to a Sun-centered view, the mapping of the stars, and the ever-expanding knowledge of the heavens using telescopes. It also examines the developing technologies of navigation and of the measuring and mapping of the Earth. In addition to rare European curios, the book is illustrated with non-Western and American works. With more than 250 full-color images, this unique volume will delight the inventive as well as the curious.

    In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Polynesian, Egyptian and Tibetan astronomy, among others, the book includes essays on Sky Tales and Why We Tell Them and Astronomy and Prehistory, and Astronomy and Astrology. The essays address the connections between science and culture and relate astronomical practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay is well illustrated and contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both the history of science and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.

    This authoritative textbook helps readers develop the necessary toolkit of theory. The book is modular in design, allowing the reader to pick and chose a selection of chapters, if necessary. After reviewing the basics of dynamics, electromagnetic theory, and statistical physics, the book carefully develops a solid understanding of radiative processes, spectra, fluid mechanics, plasma physics and MHD, dynamics of gravitating systems, general relativity, nuclear physics, and other key concepts. Throughout, the reader's understanding is developed and tested with problems and helpful hints. This welcome volume provides graduate students with an indispensable introduction to and reference on all the physical processes they will need to successfully tackle cutting-edge research in astrophysics and cosmology. It can be used alone or in conjunction with two companion volumes, which cover stars and stellar systems, and galaxies and cosmology (both forthcoming).

    In Here Be Dragons, astronomer David Koerner and neurobiologist Simon LeVay offer a scientifically compelling and colorful account of the search for life beyond Earth. The authors survey the work of biologists, cosmologists, computer theorists, NASA engineers, SETI researchers, roboticists, and UFO enthusiasts and debunkers as they attempt to answer the greatest remaining question facing humankind: Are we alone? From their safe haven of skepticism the authors venture into the rough seas of speculation, where theory and evidence run the gamut from hard science to hocus pocus. Arguing that the universe is spectacularly suited for the evolution of living creatures, Koerner and LeVay give us ringside seats at the great debates of Big Science. The contenitous arguments about what really happens in evolution, the acrimonious UFO controversy, and the debate over intelligence versus artificial intelligence shed new light on the wildly divergent claims about the universe and life's place in it. The authors argue that while no direct evidence of extraterrestrial life yet exists, habitats and chemical building blocks for life abound in the universe. A wealth of new astronomical techniques and space missions may provide this evidence early in the next century. Lucidly written and scientifically rigorous, Here Be Dragons presents everything we know thus far about the emergence of intelligent life here on earth and, perhaps, beyond.

    The sources of this intense radiation are likely to be emitting, within the span of seconds or minutes, more energy than the sun will in its entire 10 billion years of life. Where these bursts originate, and how they come to have such incredible energies, is a mystery scientists have been trying to solve for three decades. The phenomenon has resisted study -- the flashes come from random directions in space and vanish without trace -- until very recently. In what could be called a cinematic conflation of Flash Gordon and The Hunt for Red October, Govert Schilling's Flash!: The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe describes the exciting and ever-changing field of GRB research. Based on interviews with leading scientists, Flash! provides an insider's account of the scientific challenges involved in unravelling the enigmatic nature of GRBs. A science writer who has followed the drama from the very start, Schilling describes the ambition and jealousy, collegiality and competition, triumph and tragedy, that exists among those who have embarked on this recherche. Govert Schilling is a Dutch science writer and astronomy publicist. He is a contributing editor of Sky and Telescope magazine, and regularly writes for the news sections of Science and New Scientist. Schilling is the astronomy writer for de Volkskrant, one of the largest national daily newspapers in The Netherlands, and frequently talks about the Universe on Dutch radio broadcasts. He is the author of more than twenty popular astronomy books, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles on astronomy.

    The information it contains lets readers know which heavenly highlights to look for and how to continually sharpen their powers of observation. The first part of the book provides technical background; the advantages and disadvantages of various types of telescopes (including tips for purchasing one); explains where, when and how one observes the night sky; and describes the equipment necessary for a clear view. The following sections build on that knowledge with an introduction to observing the firmament, so that finding various objects is not left to chance. The second section introduces the solar system. Readers learn which bodies can be recognized with the eyes alone, and what to keep in mind when making observations. The third section is a directory of visible star clusters, clouds of gas, double stars and galaxies-arranged according to constellations which explains the special phenomena one can observe in the night sky at various times of year. A glossary and index round off the volume and make it easy to find exactly the information you want.

    The book provides month-by-month sky maps for both the northern and southern hemispheres. An astronomical calendar tracks all of the solar system's planets, and a set of tables shows all phases of the Moon up to the year 2010. Gatefold front and back covers open to show solar and lunar eclipses for the same ten-year period. A 22-page illustrated A-to-Z dictionary describes major celestial objects and events. The book features 175 sky maps, charts, and diagrams, plus 30 dramatic full-color photos.

    A revised and updated version of the popular astronomy field guide.

    Focusing on the Galileo mission, this book tracks the remarkable spacecraft gestation, the ordeal of its long haul out to Jupiter, and its 5 year long exploration of the Jovian system. The book features material taken from press conferences, technical papers, and essays written by engineers and scientists involved in the NASA Galileo mission. From the reviews: ..".Unlike his colleagues in this genre Harland provides more than just a serial history...The book is abundantly footnoted and richly illustrated with hundreds of images...I highly recommend Jupiter Odyssey to all readers, beginner to advanced, all of who will surely gain new insight into one of the most successful interplanetary missions ever flown." Amazon.com