This book provides a thorough introduction to and exploration of deep sky astrophotography for the digital photographer. With over 280 images, graphs, and tables, this introductory book uses a progressive and practical style to teach readers how to image the night sky using existing, affordable equipment. The book opens with a brief astronomy primer, followed by chapters that build progressively to explain the challenges, offer solutions, and provide invaluable information on equipment choice through image capture, calibration, and processing in affordable software. The book's focus ranges from how to image sweeping vistas and star trails using only a camera body, lens and tripod, to more advanced methods suitable for imaging galaxies, clusters, nebulae, and stars. Other features of the book include: Real-world assignments showing how and when to use certain tools and how to overcome challenges and setbacks Practical construction projects Evaluations of the most recent developments in affordable hardware and software Exploration on how sensor performance and light pollution relate to image quality and exposure planning Ground-breaking practical chapters on lucky imaging and choosing and using the latest CMOS cameras Written in an accessible, easy to follow format, this comprehensive guide equips readers with all the necessary skills to progress from photographer to astrophotographer.

Introduction.- Boarding School and University.- Astronomy Around 1875.- Astronomer and Professor.- Almost Half a Million Stars.- Laboratory and Statistical Astronomy.- Star Streams.- In the mean time in Groningen.- Mount Wilson.- Statistics and other matters.- First Attempt: the Kapetyn Universe.- Coda.

Reflecting the results of twenty years; experience in the field of multipurpose flights, this monograph includes the complex routes of the trajectories of a number of bodies (e.g., space vehicles, comets) in the solar system. A general methodological approach to the research of flight schemes and the choice of optimal performances is developed. Additionally, a number of interconnected methods and algorithms used at sequential stages of such development are introduced, which allow the selection of a rational multipurpose route for a space vehicle, the design of multipurpose orbits, the determination of optimal space vehicle design, and ballistic performances for carrying out the routes chosen. Other topics include the practical results obtained from using these methods, navigation problems, near-to-planet orbits, and an overview of proven and new flight schemes.

This book tells the story of how, over the past century, dedicated observers and pioneering scientists achieved our current understanding of the universe. It was in antiquity that humankind first attempted to explain the universe often with the help of myths and legends. This book, however, focuses on the time when cosmology finally became a true science. As the reader will learn, this was a slow process, extending over a large part of the 20th century and involving many astronomers, cosmologists and theoretical physicists. The book explains how empirical astronomical data (e.g., Leavitt, Slipher and Hubble) were reconciled with Einstein's general relativity; a challenge which finally led Friedmann, De Sitter and Lemaitre, and eventually Einstein himself, to a consistent understanding of the observational results. The reader will realize the extraordinary implications of these achievements and how deeply they changed our vision of the cosmos: From being small, static, immutable and eternal, it became vast and dynamical - originating from (almost) nothing, and yet now, nearly 14 billion years later, undergoing accelerated expansion. But, as always happens, as well as precious knowledge, new mysteries have also been created where previously absolute certainty had reigned.

This book, written by leading experts of the field, gives an excellent up-to-date overview of modern neutrino physics and is useful for scientists and graduate students alike. The book starts with a history of neutrinos and then develops from the fundamentals to the direct determination of masses and lifetimes. The role of neutrinos in fundamental astrophysical problems is discussed in detail.

Markus Aschwanden introduces the concept of self-organized criticality (SOC) and shows that due to its universality and ubiquity it is a law of nature for which he derives the theoretical framework and specific physical models in this book. He begins by providing an overview of the many diverse phenomena in nature which may be attributed to SOC behaviour.

The author then introduces the classic lattice-based SOC models that may be explored using numerical computer simulations. These simulations require an in-depth knowledge of a wide range of mathematical techniques which the author introduces and describes in subsequent chapters. These include the statistics of random processes, time series analysis, time scale distributions, and waiting time distributions. Such mathematical techniques are needed to model and understand the power-law-like occurrence frequency distributions of SOC phenomena. Finally, the author discusses fractal geometry and scaling laws before looking at a range of physical SOC models which may be applicable in various aspects of astrophysics. Problems, solutions and a glossary will enhance the pedagogical usefulness of the book.

SOC has been receiving growing attention in the astrophysical and solar physics community. This book will be welcomed by students and researchers studying complex critical phenomena.

This book includes 58 selected articles that highlight the major contributions of Professor Radha Charan Gupta-a doyen of history of mathematics-written on a variety of important topics pertaining to mathematics and astronomy in India. It is divided into ten parts. Part I presents three articles offering an overview of Professor Gupta's oeuvre. The four articles in Part II convey the importance of studies in the history of mathematics. Parts III-VII constituting 33 articles, feature a number of articles on a variety of topics, such as geometry, trigonometry, algebra, combinatorics and spherical trigonometry, which not only reveal the breadth and depth of Professor Gupta's work, but also highlight his deep commitment to the promotion of studies in the history of mathematics. The ten articles of part VIII, present interesting bibliographical sketches of a few veteran historians of mathematics and astronomy in India. Part IX examines the dissemination of mathematical knowledge across different civilisations. The last part presents an up-to-date bibliography of Gupta's work. It also includes a tribute to him in Sanskrit composed in eight verses.

Since several decades, comets have been considered as key witnesses of solar system formation. Their nature has been explored using the modern arsenal of Earth- and space-based observations, and they hold a central place as dynamical arbiters of the planetary system in the new paradigm of solar system evolution known as the Nice Model. Thus, they have the potential to test the various ideas, using the detailed data recently gathered by the ESA/Rosetta mission. This requires an understanding of their origin and evolution, which form the subject of the present book. All the relevant issues are covered, describing both the background and the current frontiers of research.

Among the most influential, world-renowned scientists during the early decades of the twentieth century was the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922). Kapteyn's influence resulted from and contributed to the golden age of Dutch science. In the words of the brilliant English astrophysicist, Arthur S. Eddington: Holland has given many scientific leaders to the world: it is doubtful whether any other nation in proportion to its size can show so fine a record. J.C. Kapteyn was among the most distinguished of its sons -- a truly great astronomer'. The present text is an English translation of Kapteyn's 1928 (Dutch) biography by his daughter Henrietta Hertzsprung-Kapteyn. While the original biography suffers from -- but in many ways is also enriched by -- the emotional excesses of a loving daughter writing of her famous father, this new translation provides an annotated assessment of Kapteyn as family man, scientist and world leader. This new volume also opens up to a much wider reading public many of the enormously rich contributions, not only of Kapteyn the man but also of the Dutch, to the emergence of astronomy as a major intellectual force in the world. Perhaps equally important, the translated biography reproduces many biographical and technical details from Kapteyn's correspondence with numerous other scientists and scholars. Access to the Kapteyn biography becomes an archival treasure for future studies dealing with Kapteyn himself, as well as with the history of both modern and Dutch astronomy and with the rise of international astronomy.

This book analyses the magnificent imperial necropolises of ancient China from the perspective of Archaeoastronomy, a science which takes into account the landscape in which ancient monuments are placed, focusing especially but not exclusively on the celestial aspects. The power of the Chinese emperors was based on the so-called Mandate of Heaven: the rulers were believed to act as intermediaries between the sky gods and the Earth, and consequently, the architecture of their tombs, starting from the world-famous mausoleum of the first emperor, was closely linked to the celestial cycles and to the cosmos. This relationship, however, also had to take into account various other factors and doctrines, first the Zhao-Mu doctrine in the Han period and later the various forms of Feng Shui. As a result, over the centuries, diverse sacred landscapes were constructed. Among the sites analysed in the book are the "pyramids" of Xi'an from the Han dynasty, the mountain tombs of the Tang dynasty, and the Ming and Qing imperial tombs. The book explains how considerations such as astronomical orientation and topographical orientation according to the principles of Feng Shui played a fundamental role at these sites.

In 2008, the European FP6 JETSET project ended. JETSET, for Jet, Simulations, Experiments, and Theory, was a joint research network of European expert teams on protostellar jets. The present proceedings are a collection of contributions presenting new results obtained by those groups since the end of the JETSET program. This is also the occasion to celebrate Kanaris Tsinganos' important contributions to this network and for his enlightening insight in the subject that inspired us all. Some of the former JETSET students are now in the academic world and the subject has never been so alive. So we present here a collection of results of what has been done in the field of protostellar jets in the past ten years from the theoretical, numerical, observational and experimental point of view. We also present new challenges in the field of protostellar jets and what we should expect from the development of new instruments and new numerical codes in the near future. We also gather results on the impact of the study of protostellar jets on other jet studies in particular on relativistic jets. As a matter of fact, it is time for a new network.