Fundamental Astronomy

Editors: Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (Eds.)
The established, widely-adopted textbook for physical science majors that gives a comprehensive, calculus-based introduction to the topics of classical and modern astronomy and astrophysics
Richly illustrated with more than 400 images, including 36 color plates, that take you on a visual tour of the cosmos
Fifth edition offers substantial new material on extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and extra-solar planets, as well as updates throughout that are a real step up from the previous edition
Comprehensive approach provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences

Fundamental Astronomy is a well-balanced, comprehensive introduction to classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences.

Fundamental Astronomy is a well-balanced, comprehensive introduction to classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences.

Fundamental Astronomy is a well-balanced, comprehensive introduction to classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles,

Fundamental Astronomy is a well-balanced, comprehensive introduction to classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences. This is the fifth edition of the successful undergraduate textbook and reference work.

Fundamental Astronomy gives a well-balanced and comprehensive introduction to the various fields of classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences. The present much enlarged second edition of this successful textbook includes a host of new knowledge acquired in recent years.

The main purpose of this book is to serve as a university textbook for a first course in astronomy. However, we believe that the audience will also include many serious ama­ teurs, who often find the popular texts too trivial. The lack of a good handbook for am­ ateurs has become a problem lately, as more and more people are buying personal com­ puters and need exact, but comprehensible, mathematical formalism for their programs. The reader of this book is assumed to have only a standard high-school knowledge of mathematics and physics (as they are taught in Finland); everything more advanced is usually derived step by step from simple basic principles. The mathematical background needed includes plane trigonometry, basic differential and integral calculus, and (only in the chapter dealing with celestial mechanics) some vector calculus. Some mathematical concepts the reader may not be familiar with are briefly explained in the appendices or can be understood by studying the numerous exercises and examples. However, most of the book can be read with very little knowledge of mathematics, and even if the reader skips the mathematically more involved sections, (s)he should get a good overview of the field of astronomy.