ISE Explorations: Introduction to Astronomy

Tom Arny is an Emeritus professor in the Astronomy Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was associated there with the Five College Astronomy Program(comprising faculty from U-Mass, Amhurst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges). Dr. Arny received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona. In addition to his interest in astronomy, he has a long-standing fascination with the natural world: weather (especially atmospheric optics such as rainbows), birds, wildflowers, and butterflies. Visit Dr. Arny's website at: http://www.astro.umass.edu/~arny/astro100.html Steve Schneider became interested in astronomy at the amateur level when he was a child. He studied astronomy as an undergraduate at Harvard and obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell. His dissertation work received the Trumpler Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and he was named a Presidential Young Investigator. In addition to teaching introductory astronomy, he works closely with science teachers, presenting workshops and special courses. He also loves to draw and paint.

Preview The Cosmic Landscape

Chapter 1 The Cycles of the Sky

Chapter 2 The Rise of Astronomy

Essay 1 Backyard Astronomy

Chapter 3 Gravity and Motion

Chapter 4 Light and Atoms

Essay 2 Special and General Relativity

Chapter 5 Telescopes

Chapter 6 Earth

Essay 3 Keeping Time

Chapter 7 The Moon

Chapter 8 Survey of Solar Systems

Chapter 9 The Terrestrial Planets

Chapter 10 The Outer Planets

Chapter 11 Small Bodies Orbiting the Sun

Chapter 12 The Sun, Our Star

Chapter 13 Measuring the Properties of Stars

Chapter 14 Stellar Evolution

Chapter 15 Stellar Remnants: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes

Chapter 16 The Milky Way Galaxy

Chapter 17 Galaxies

Chapter 18 Cosmology

Essay 4 Life in the Universe

Answers to Test Yourself

Appendix

Scientific Notation

Metric Prefixes

Solving Distance, Velocity, Time (d, V, t) Problems

Some Useful Formulas

Glossary

Credits

Index

Night Sky Charts

Foldout Star Chart