Astronomy: The Universe, Equipment, Stars and Planets, Monthly Guides (Eyewitness Companions Guides)

301 Pages·2006·68.76 MB·English

by  Ian Ridpath, Carole Stott, Giles Sparrow

EYEWITNESS companions
Astronomy
IaN rIdpaTh
additional contributors
giles sparrow, carole stott
“Ast ron om y c om pe l s the
s o u l to look upwAr d And
l e Ad s us f rom th is wo r ld
to Anoth e r ”
Plato
LONDON, NEW YORK,
MUNICH, MELBOURNE, DELHI
Senior Editor Peter Frances
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Managing Editor Liz Wheeler
Managing Art Editor Phil Ormerod
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Publisher Jonathan Metcalf
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Produced for Dorling Kindersley by
Cooling Brown Ltd
Introduction 10
Creative Director Arthur Brown
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Designers Peter Cooling
Murdo Culver
Elaine Hewson
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Editors Ferdie McDonald
HISTORY
Amanda Lebentz
Picture Researcher Louise Thomas
The beginnings of
First American Edition, 2006
Published in the United States by astronomy 16
DK Publishing, Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
The rise of
New York, NY 10014
astrophysics 22
06 07 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Our place in the
Copyright © 2006 Dorling Kindersley Limited
Text copyright © 2006 Ian Ridpath universe 24
and Dorling Kindersley
Into orbit 26
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may The race to the
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted Moon 28
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior Shuttles and stations 30
written permission of the copyright owner. Published in
Exploring the solar
Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is system 34
available from the Library of Congress.
Unlocking the stars 36
ISBN 0-7566-1733-2
Pushing the limits 38
ISBN 978-0-7566-1733-2
DK books are available at special discounts for bulk
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CONTENTS
The Big Bang 48 The Moon 96 Finding your way
The first stars Mars 104 134
and galaxies 52 Jupiter 108 Starting observing
The expanding Saturn 112 136
universe 54
Uranus 116 Binoculars
The fate of the
Neptune 118 138
universe 56
Pluto 120 Telescope astronomy
140
Comets and
PHENOMENA 58 meteors 122 Astrophotography
144
Star classification Asteroids and
60 meteorites 124
Stellar life cycles THE CONSTELLATIONS
62 146
THE
Multiple stars and Mapping the sky
NIGHT SKY
clusters 70 148
Variable stars Understanding the
72 OBSERVATION 128 charts 150
Galaxies 74 The appearance of Guide to the Constellations
Planets of other the sky 130 152–227
stars 79
MONTHLY SKY
THE SOLAR GUIDE 228
SYSTEM 80
Our solar system ALMANAC 278
82
The Sun 84
Mercury 90 Glossary 290
Venus 92 Index 293
Earth 94 Acknowledgments 299