Infrared astronomy is a dynamic area of current research. It has been revolutionized in the past few years by the advent of large, sensitive, infrared arrays, and the success of several infrared satellites. This handbook provides a clear, concise and accessible reference on all aspects of infrared astronomy. Throughout, the emphasis is on fundamental concepts, practical considerations and useful data. Starting with a review of the basic infrared emission mechanisms, we are shown how the earth's atmosphere affects and limits observations from ground-based telescopes. The important systematics of photometric accuracy are treated in detail. Spectroscopy--both stellar and otherwise--is explained, and illustrated with useful examples. An important chapter is devoted to dust, which plays such a central role. Finally, the technical background to infrared instrumentation is covered to help the reader develop a proper understanding of the capabilities and limitations of infrared observations. This volume provides both an essential introduction for graduate students making infrared observations or reducing infrared data for the first time, and a convenient reference for more experienced researchers.

With this extraordinary handbook, you, too, can frame the stars and have them hanging on your livingroom walls. Astrophotography for the Amateur provides a complete guide to taking pictures of stars, galaxies, the Moon, the Sun, comets, meteors and eclipses, using equipment and materials readily available to the hobbyist. Based on suggestions from readers of the first edition, the new edition has been completely updated and expanded to include new chapters on computer image processing and CCD imaging; expanded advice on choosing cameras and telescopes; completely updated information about films; a much larger bibliography; and hundreds of new photographs (in color and black and white) demonstrating the latest equipment and techniques. Astrophotography for the Amateur has become the standard handbook for all amateur astronomers. This new edition provides an ideal introduction for beginners and a complete handbook for advanced amateurs. It will also appeal to photography enthusiasts who will discover how to take spectacular images with only modest equipment. Michael A. Covington received his Ph.D. at Yale University. He is the author of several books, including Syntactic Theory in the High Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1984). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is the Associate Director of the Artificial Intelligence Center at the University of Georgia.

Written by an accomplished amateur astronomer and available for the first time in North America, this advanced guide is designed to take your evening explorations to new heights. Beginning with an explanation of the fundamental principles of practical astronomy, author North provides essential information on telescope optics, the atmosphere, astrophotography, electronic imaging, and telescope hardware (including how to select equipment and diagnose faulty telescopes). This knowledge is then applied to the full range of celestial bodies accessible by telescope: the solar system, stars and galaxies. For those amateur astronomers who are bored with making simple observations, chapters on photometry, spectroscopy and radio astronomy bring observational astronomy to a level where data of real scientific value can be acquired. This book is a must for any amateur astronomer wanting a new way to look at the sky.

Written by an experienced and well-known lunar observer, this is a hands-on primer for the aspiring observer of the Moon. Whether you are a novice or are already experienced in practical astronomy you will find plenty in this book to help you raise your game to the next level and beyond. In this thoroughly updated Second Edition, the author provides extensive practical advice and sophisticated background knowledge of the Moon and of lunar observation. It incorporates the latest developments in lunar imaging techniques, including digital photography, CCD imaging, and webcam observing, and essential advice on collimating all common types of telescope. Learn what scientists have discovered about our Moon, and what mysteries remain still to be solved. Find out how you can take part in the efforts to solve these mysteries, as well as enjoying the Moon's spectacular magnificence for yourself!

Introducing planetary photometry as a quantitative remote sensing tool, this handbook demonstrates how reflected light can be measured and used to investigate the physical properties of bodies in our Solar System. The author explains how data gathered from telescopes and spacecraft are processed and used to infer properties such as the size, shape, albedo, and composition of celestial objects including planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Beginning with an overview of the history and background theory of photometry, later chapters delve into the physical principles behind commonly used photometric models and the mechanics of observation, data reduction, and analysis. Real-world examples, problems, and case studies are included, all at an introductory level suitable for new graduate students, planetary scientists, amateur astronomers and researchers looking for an overview of this field.

** An accompanying journal to the original & bestselling Almanacs by Lia Leendertz.** The Almanac Journal is a place for you to create your own personal almanac, starting and ending at any point in the year. This is a space to write down all of the things you notice about the year's turning, and your own reactions to it. There are pages where you can note all of the firsts: first swift, first rose, first frost; a place to squirrel away your favourite foraging locations - and to jot down the recipes you create from them. There are also pages for pressed flowers and seaweeds, sketches and pictures, feathers and drying leaves. Make it your own. Lia Leendertz is an award-winning garden and food writer, her reinvention of the traditional rural almanac has become an annual must-have for readers eager to connect with the seasons, appreciate the outdoors and discover ways to mark and celebrate each month. PRAISE FOR THE ALMANACS 'Indispensable' - Sir Bob Geldof 'The perfect companion to the seasons' - India Knight 'This book is your bible' - the Independent 'An ideal stocking filler' - The English Garden 'I love this gem of a book' - Cerys Matthews

In the field of astrophysics, modern developments of practice are emerging in order to further understand the spectral information derived from cosmic sources. Radio telescopes are a current mode of practice used to observe these occurrences. Despite the various accommodations that this technology offers, physicists around the globe need a better understanding of the underlying physics and operational components of radio telescopes as well as an explanation of the cosmic objects that are being detected. Analyzing the Physics of Radio Telescopes and Radio Astronomy is an essential reference source that discusses the principles of the astronomical instruments involved in the construction of radio telescopes and the analysis of cosmic sources and celestial objects detected by this machinery. Featuring research on topics such as electromagnetic theory, antenna design, and geometrical optics, this book is ideally designed for astrophysicists, engineers, researchers, astronomers, students, and educators seeking coverage on the operational methods of radio telescopes and understanding the physical processes of radio astronomy.

The Dutch telescope and the Italian scientist Galileo have long enjoyed a durable connection in the popular mind--so much so that it seems this simple glass instrument transformed a rather modest middle-aged scholar into the bold icon of the Copernican Revolution. And yet the extraordinary speed with which the telescope changed the course of Galileo's life and early modern astronomy obscures the astronomer's own curiously delayed encounter with the instrument. This book considers the lapse between the telescope's creation in The Hague in 1608 and Galileo's alleged acquaintance with such news ten months later. In an inquiry into scientific and cultural history, Eileen Reeves explores two fundamental questions of intellectual accountability: what did Galileo know of the invention of the telescope, and when did he know it?

The record suggests that Galileo, like several of his peers, initially misunderstood the basic design of the telescope. In seeking to explain the gap between the telescope's emergence and the alleged date of the astronomer's acquaintance with it, Reeves explores how and why information about the telescope was transmitted, suppressed, or misconstrued in the process. Her revised version of events, rejecting the usual explanations of silence and idleness, is a revealing account of the role that misprision, error, and preconception play in the advancement of science.

Along the way, Reeves offers a revised chronology of Galileo's life in a critical period and, more generally, shows how documents typically outside the scope of early modern natural philosophy--medieval romances, travel literature, and idle speculations--relate to two crucial events in the history ofscience.

Radio astronomy is an active and rapidly expanding field due to advances in computing techniques, with several important new instruments on the horizon. This text provides a thorough introduction to radio astronomy and its contribution to our understanding of the universe, bridging the gap between basic introductions and research-level treatments. It begins by covering the fundamentals physics of radio techniques, before moving on to single-dish telescopes and aperture synthesis arrays. Fully updated and extensively rewritten, the fourth edition places greater emphasis on techniques, with detailed discussion of interferometry in particular, and comprehensive coverage of digital techniques in the appendices. The science sections are fully revised, with new author Peter N. Wilkinson bringing added expertise to the sections on pulsars, quasars and active galaxies. Spanning the entirety of radio astronomy, this is an engaging introduction for students and researchers approaching radio astronomy for the first time.

Masers are observed at a range of scales - from comets, through star-forming clouds, to galactic nuclei - and have many astrophysical applications, for example measuring cosmological distances. Written for postgraduate students and professional researchers in molecular astrophysics, this volume is an up-to-date survey of the theory and observations of astrophysical maser sources and their use as astronomical tools. The book summarizes the history of the discovery of various maser molecules and lines, and discusses maser observations on various scales. The theory is discussed in detail, including the quantum-mechanical response of the molecules, before being linked to more general radiation transfer. A discussion of spectral-line radio astronomy techniques shows how maser observations can be applied more generally to radio astronomy. The book introduces new and projected instruments, including ALMA and SKA. Additional topics address the radiation statistics of astrophysical masers, and numerical methods of analysis.

From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Terracotta Army, ancient artifacts have long fascinated the modern world. However, the importance of some discoveries is not always immediately understood. This was the case in 1901 when sponge divers retrieved a lump of corroded bronze from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Antikythera. Little did the divers know they had found the oldest known analog computer in the world, an astonishing device that once simulated the motions of the stars and planets as they were understood by ancient Greek astronomers. Its remains now consist of 82 fragments, many of them containing gears and plates engraved with Greek words, that scientists and scholars have pieced back together through painstaking inspection and deduction, aided by radiographic tools and surface imaging. More than a century after its discovery, many of the secrets locked in this mysterious device can now be revealed. In addition to chronicling the unlikely discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism, author Alexander Jones takes readers through a discussion of how the device worked, how and for what purpose it was created, and why it was on a ship that wrecked off the Greek coast around 60 BC. What the Mechanism has uncovered about Greco-Roman astronomy and scientific technology, and their place in Greek society, is truly amazing. The mechanical know-how that it embodied was more advanced than anything the Greeks were previously thought capable of, but the most recent research has revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman could understand the behavior of astronomical phenomena, and how intertwined they were with one's natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of machinery as well as one of the first portable teaching devices. Written by a world-renowned expert on the Mechanism, A Portable Cosmos will fascinate all readers interested in ancient history, archaeology, and the history of science.

When the first X-ray detectors revealed many places in the universe that are too hot to be seen by optical and radio telescopes, pioneering X-ray astronomers realized they were onto something big. They knew that a large X-ray observatory must be created if they were ever to understand such astonishing phenomena as neutron stars, supernovas, black holes, and dark matter. What they could not know was how monumental in time, money, and effort this undertaking would be. "Revealing the Universe" tells the story of the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

From the first proposal for a large X-ray telescope in 1970 to the deployment of Chandra by the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1999, this book chronicles the technical feats, political struggles, and personal dramas that transformed an inspired vision into the world's supreme X-ray observatory. With an insider's knowledge and a storyteller's instincts, Wallace and Karen Tucker describe the immense challenges that this project posed for such high-tech industry giants as TRW, Eastman Kodak, and Hughes Danbury Optical Systems (now Raytheon Optical Systems). Their portrayal of the role of NASA is itself an extraordinary case study of multibillion-dollar government decisionmaking, and a cautionary tale for future large space astronomy missions. "Revealing the Universe" is primarily the story of the men and women whose discoveries, skills, failures, and successes made the Chandra X-ray Observatory possible.

This is a George Adams' classic text, written in 1766, reprinted. George Adams (c. 1720-1773), optician and scientific writer, is best remembered as a maker of fine mathematical instruments and globes. He founded his eponymous company George Adams of London and was appointed Instrument Maker to the King. Late 18thC England witnessed the rise of an increasing public awareness of science, spreading beyond learned societies which found new devotees in royal courts, coffee houses, salons, lecture theatres, and in the homes of the gentry. "Science", no longer confined to the Royal Society of London, was transmitted by a growing body of lecturers and by the publication of ever more books, instruction manuals, and pamphlets on scientific subjects of which Adams' "Essay on the Use of Celestial & Terrestrial Globes" was a major publication of its time running to five editions between 1766 and 1808. This facsimile edition was first published by Pelican in 2006.

Celestial Delights is essentially a 'TV Guide' for teh sky. This will be its third edition. This title, which has aggregated sales of about 20,000 copies to date in its two previous editions and has found a niche with skygazers, is much awaited. Through extensive graphics integrated with an eight-year-long calendar of sky events, it provides a look at "don't miss" sky events, mostly for naked-eye and binocular observing. The book is organized by ease of observation - lunar phases and the brighter planets come first, while solar eclipses, the aurora, and comets come later. Celestial Delights also includes a hefty dose of sky lore, astronomical history, and clear overviews of current science. It provides a handy reference to upcoming naked-eye events, with information broken out in clear and simple diagrams and tables that are cross-referenced against a detailed almanac for each year covered. Most broad-ranging astronomy field guides focus on stars, constellations, and the deep sky, but tend to ignore planetary events, which are in by far the most widely observable aspects of the changing night sky. Celestial Delights puts a variety of information all in one place, presents it in a friendly way that does not require prior in-depth astronomical knowledge, but provides the context and historical background for understanding events that astronomical computer programs or web sites lack.

"The Heavens on Earth" explores the place of the observatory in nineteenth-century science and culture. Astronomy was a core pursuit for observatories, but usually not the only one. It belonged to a larger group of "observatory sciences" that also included geodesy, meteorology, geomagnetism, and even parts of physics and statistics. These pursuits coexisted in the nineteenth-century observatory; this collection surveys them as a coherent whole. Broadening the focus beyond the solitary astronomer at his telescope, it illuminates the observatory's importance to technological, military, political, and colonial undertakings, as well as in advancing and popularizing the mathematical, physical, and cosmological sciences.
The contributors examine "observatory techniques" developed and used not only in connection with observatories but also by instrument makers in their workshops, navy officers on ships, civil engineers in the field, and many others. These techniques included the calibration and coordination of precision instruments for making observations and taking measurements; methods of data acquisition and tabulation; and the production of maps, drawings, and photographs, as well as numerical, textual, and visual representations of the heavens and the earth. They also encompassed the social management of personnel within observatories, the coordination of international scientific collaborations, and interactions with dignitaries and the public. The state observatory occupied a particularly privileged place in the life of the city. With their imposing architecture and ancient traditions, state observatories served representative purposes for their patrons, whether as symbols of a monarch's enlightened power, a nation's industrial and scientific excellence, or republican progressive values. Focusing on observatory techniques in settings from Berlin, London, Paris, and Rome to Australia, Russia, Thailand, and the United States, "The Heavens on Earth" is a major contribution to the history of science.

"Contributors" David Aubin, Charlotte Bigg, Guy Boistel, Theresa Levitt, Massimo Mazzotti, Ole Molvig, Simon Schaffer, Martina Schiavon, H. Otto Sibum, Richard Staley, John Tresch, Simon Werrett, Sven Widmalm

This volume collects Congressional Research Service reports (which are available on the Web for free) related to US space policy. It covers US civilian space policy priorities 50 years after Sputnik; government activities, commercial competition, and satellite exports in space launch vehicles; space stations; the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle; appropriations and current issues connected to US military space programs; the future of the Space Shuttle program; issues concerning the "Vision for Space Exploration," issues concerning the Department of Defense's space-based infrared system and space tracking and surveillance system programs; and whether NASA should proceed with a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Praise for Star Ware

"Star Ware is still a tour de force that any experienced amateur will find invaluable, and which hardware-minded beginners will thoroughly enjoy."

-- Robert Burnham, Sky & Telescope magazine

"Star Ware condenses between two covers what would normally take a telescope buyer many months to accumulate."

-- John Shibley, Astronomy magazine

Whether you're shopping for your first telescope or your fifth, don't be surprised if you feel overwhelmed by the dazzling array of product choices, bells and whistles, and the literature that describes them all. That's why you need Star Ware.

In this revised and updated Fourth Edition of the essential guide to comparing and selecting sky-watching equipment, award-winning astronomy writer Philip Harrington takes you telescope shopping the easy way. He analyzes and explains today's astronomy market and compares brands and models point by point. Star Ware gives you the confidence you need to buy the telescope and accessories that are right for you and the knowledge to get the most out of your new purchase, with:

Extensive, expanded reviews of leading models and accessories--including dozens of new products

A clear, step-by-step guide to every aspect of selecting telescopes, binoculars, filters, mounts, lenses, cameras, film, star charts, guides and references, and much more

Ten new do-it-yourself projects for building your own astronomical equipment

Easy tips on setting up, using, and caring for telescopes and other astronomical equipment

Lists of where to find everything astronomical, including Web sites and resources; distributors, dealers, and conventions; and corporate listings for products andservices

Gateway to the Moon presents the definitive history of the origins, design, and construction of the lunar launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center, the terrestrial site of one of the greatest national adventures of the 20th century, humanity's first trip to the moon. It includes archival illustrations and diagrams of locations, personnel, and equipment, from aerial views of sandy, undeveloped Cape Canaveral to some of the first photos of the mobile launchers and crawler-transporters.

Filled with the sense of wonder and pride that the earliest U.S. space achievements inspired, the book focuses on launch complexes 39A and 39B, the gigantic assemblies from which the Apollo-Saturn vehicles departed for trips into space, and on the massive eight-acre Vertical Assembly Building (renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building) and the attached Launch Control Center -- some of the most awesome buildings ever constructed. It also analyzes the technological and governmental interactions necessary to ensure success of the launches.

Originally part of Moonport, a 1978 volume in the NASA History Series, the book is based on extensive interviews with wit participants in the space program and wide access to official documents, letters, and memoranda; in addition, the authors air criticisms directed at the Kennedy Space Center team and treat in detail mistakes in launch operations and conflicts within the program. Written for a general-interest audience, with jargon and acronyms translated into everyday language, the book offers a faithful account of technology in service to humanity.

IAU Symposium 356 summarises the most recent results in the field of active galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN). These are some of the most luminous sources in the Universe, also the most distant ones that we can observe, so they are very important for understanding the early Universe and its evolution through cosmic time. This volume gives an overview of the current status in the field of active galaxies including: AGN multiwavelength observations; different AGN types and their properties; AGN variability; active supermassive black holes and properties of galaxies in which they reside; triggering, feedback and shutting off AGN activity; relativistic jets and environments of active galaxies; and AGN evolution. IAU S356 was the third IAU symposium organised in Africa in the past 100 years since the IAU was established, and the first one organised in Ethiopia, highlighting current developments in astronomical research in Africa.

This book provides a unified treatment of the characteristics of telescopes of all types, both those whose performance is set by geometrical aberrations and the effect of the atmosphere, and those diffraction-limited telescopes designed for observations from above the atmosphere. The emphasis throughout is on basic principles, such as Fermat's principle, and their application to optical systems specifically designed to image distant celestial sources.
The book also contains thorough discussions of the principles underlying all spectroscopic instrumentation, with special emphasis on grating instruments used with telescopes. An introduction to adaptive optics provides the needed background for further inquiry into this rapidly developing area.

* Geometrical aberration theory based on Fermat's principle
* Diffraction theory and transfer function approach to near-perfect telescopes
* Thorough discussion of 2-mirror telescopes, including misalignments
* Basic principles of spectrometry; grating and echelle instruments
* Schmidt and other catadioptric telescopes
* Principles of adaptive optics
* Over 220 figures and nearly 90 summary tables

Astronomy has never been a more popular pastime than it is today. The increased availability of less expensive, more powerful, and more sophisticated telescopes has given rise to a new generation of stargazers. And for these beginning astronomers here is the comprehensive book covering everything from the difficult task of selecting an instrument to the equally daunting choices that arise when a telescope is turned to the heavens.

Renowned British astronomer and author James Muirden takes the fledgling astronomer by the hand in his new book, offering tips on:

* the purchase, assembly, and orientation of your new telescope
* how to observe and chart the Sun, Moon, planets, stars and comets
* how to investigate the deep-sky objects -- clusters, nebulae, and other galaxies beyond the Milky Way

The final chapter, "Windows into Space," explores ten carefully selected regions featuring noteworthy examples of double stars, galaxies, and nebulae, as well as more obscure objects seldom examined by astronomers.

How to Use an Astronomical Telescope offers completely revised and updated location charts with detailed coordinates, tables, appendixes, and numerous illustrations and photographs, making it the essential volume for one's first exploration of the cosmos.

In this volume the creator and director of Jodrell Bank, the world's largest radio telescope, tells the fascinating story behind the building of this huge telescope. Though the telescope is popularly known for tracking and communicating with man-made satellites, its prime function is the study of the universe by means of radio waves emitted by distatant stars. The radiation received from meteors, the moon, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way offers new information daily about the origins of life on this planet and the possibilities of life on other worlds. The building of the telescope was fraught with mishaps and frustrations-financial, political, and otherwise; yet, through his perseverance, Sir Bernard Lovell made its creation a reality. His story, drawn largely from personal diaries, documents the complex conflicts among scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians which arose out of this monumental endeavor.

The Galactic Centre represents a unique and extreme environment in the Galaxy. It hosts the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, its most concentrated dense gas reservoir and its most extreme star-formation environment. The Galactic Centre is therefore our nearest analogue to both an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a starburst system. IAU Symposium 322 explores the revolution in our understanding of the Galactic Centre, driven by novel instrumentation including NuSTAR, ALMA, EHT and, in the near future, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). A number of anomalous, non-thermal signals have recently been discovered emanating from the Inner Galaxy. This volume addresses the question: are these signatures of dark matter or other new physics, or symptoms of the region's unusual astrophysics? Graduate students and researchers at the interface between astrophysics and particle physics have much to learn from studying this unique region.

Adaptive optics is the most revolutionary breakthrough in astronomy since Galileo pointed his telescope skyward four hundred years ago. It is critical technology that will enable astronomers to answer challenging questions about the universe.
Over the last four decades, a formidable and persistent team of scientists from the Air Force Research Laboratory, MIT/Lincoln Laboratory, and private contractors led the way in achieving groundbreaking advances in adaptive optics. They demonstrated laser guide star techniques and made adaptive optics practical on large telescopes. The military aggressively pursued the development of adaptive optics for two reasons--imaging for space situational awareness and laser weapons. A significant part of this research occurred at the Starfire Optical Range in New Mexico and the Maui optical site in Hawaii. The program remained classified during the 1970s and 1980s, but the government declassified it in the early 1990s, enabling significant technology transfer to the astronomy community.
Robert Duffner has compiled a unique history of the invention of laser guide stars and other contributions to adaptive optics made by the Department of Defense. He had access to a large collection of primary source material housed in the offices of government scientists and in the Research Laboratory's archives at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque. Duffner also interviewed seventy-one prominent scientists who played key roles advancing adaptive optics research.