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

PMThis guide provides a comprehensive tour of the famous Kitt Peak telescopes and an introduction to the important research accomplished with them. For more than 45 years, astronomers have used the telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatories (KPNO) to make many remarkable discoveries about the Universe. KPNO supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the sun. It is currently the most visited astronomical observatory site in the world, including over 50,000 visitors a year from all 50 states and over 51 countries. With over twenty optical and radio telescopes, the site reveals to visitors modern astronomy's great diversity. Leslie Sage is a Senior Editor at Nature magazine and Research Associate, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland. ^lGail Aschenbrener is a Public Affairs Officer, USDA Forest Servi

“[A] brilliant defense of science’s place in the religious life (and vice versa).”—Publisher’s Weekly


Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno’s moving and intellectually playful memoir of a life lived in the active interplay of science and religion is now available in a handsome paperback edition.


Blending memoir, science, history, and theology, Consolmagno takes us on a grand adventure. We revisit the infamous “Galileo affair” and see that it didn’t unfold in quite the way we thought. We get a rare glimpse into the world of working scientists and see how scientific discoveries are proposed and advanced. We learn the inside story of the “Mars meteorite”: how can we be sure it’s really from Mars, and why can’t scientists agree on whether or not it contains evidence of life? Brother Astronomer memorably sets forth one scientist’s conviction that the universe may be worth studying only if it is the work of a Creator God.

The Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac offers explanatory material, supplemental information, and detailed descriptions of the computational models and algorithms used to produce The Astronomical Almanac, which is an annual publication prepared jointly by the US Naval Observatory and Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office in the UK. Like The Astronomical Almanac, The Explanatory Supplement provides detailed coverage of modern positional astronomy. Chapters are devoted to the celestial and terrestrial reference frames, orbital ephemerides, precession, nutation, Earth rotation, and coordinate transformations. These topics have undergone substantial revisions since the last edition was published in 1992. Astronomical positions are intertwined with timescales and relativity in The Astronomical Almanac, so related chapters are provided in The Explanatory Supplement. The Astronomical Almanac also includes information on lunar and solar eclipses, physical ephemerides of solar system bodies, and calendars, so The Explanatory Supplement expounds upon each of these topics as well. The book is written at a technical, but non-expert level. As such, it provides an important reference for a full range of users including astronomers, engineers, navigators, surveyors, space scientists, and educators.

Star-gazing with binoculars is rewarding and, for many, a lifelong passion! Patrick Moore has painstakingly researched Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars to describe the optimal use of binoculars for astronomical observation. He explains basic astronomy and the selection of binoculars, then goes on to discuss the stars, clusters, nebulae and galaxies that await the observer. He charts the sky seen from the northern and southern hemispheres season by season, providing detailed maps of all the constellations. In addition, the reader can also observe the Sun, Moon, planets, comets and meteors. New to this Fourth Edition are: An improved presentation of all star maps, rendering a clear impression of what the night sky really looks like; planetary data through 2010; and advice on eclipse watching, including total eclipses of the sun. With many beautiful illustrations, this handbook will be helpful and encouraging to casual observers and those cultivating a more serious interest. The enjoyment of amateur astronomy is now available to everybody!

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.

PixInsight has taken the astro-imaging world by storm. As the first comprehensive postprocessing platform to be created by astro-imagers for astro-imagers, it has for many replaced other generic graphics editors as the software of choice. PixInsight has been embraced by professionals such as the James Webb (and Hubble) Space Telescope's science imager Joseph DePasquale and Calar Alto's Vicent Peris, as well as thousands of amateurs around the world. While PixInsight is extremely powerful, very little has been printed on the subject. The first edition of this book broke that mold, offering a comprehensive look into the software's capabilities. This second edition expands on the several new processes added to the PixInsight platform since that time, detailing and demonstrating each one with a now-expanded workflow. Addressing topics such as PhotometricColorCalibration, Large-Scale Pixel Rejection, LocalNormalization and a host of other functions, this text remains the authoritative guide to PixInsight.

** 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

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.

The emphasis of Planetary Atmospheres is on comparative aspects of planetary atmospheres, generally meaning comparison with the Earth, including atmospheric composition, thermal structure, cloud properties, dynamics, weather and climate, and aeronomy. The goal is to look for common processes at work under different boundary conditions in order to reach a fundamental understanding of the physics of atmospheres. As part of a general Physics course, the material is chosen to emphasise certain aspects that will be of broad topical interest:
- evolutionary processes, setting the Earth in its context as a planet and a member of the Solar System
- the properties of atmospheres that affect the climate near the surface of each planet
- measurement techniques and models, where the same experimental and theoretical physics is applied under different conditions to investigate and explain atmospheric behaviour.
These might be thought of as the astronomical, environmental, and technical sides of the discipline respectively.
The book covers the basic physics of planetary atmospheres in a single text for students or anyone interested in this area of science. The approach is the same as in the author's previous book Elementary Climate Physics: an overview, followed by more detailed discussion of key topics arranged by physical phenomenon and not planet by planet as usually found in this field. There is an emphasis on acquiring and interpreting measurements, and the basic physics of instruments and models, with key definitions and some historical background in footnotes and in the glossary at the end of the book.

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.

Why write a book about the stars? Of what use is their study? This book covers this ground with a number of anecdotes arising from the author's almost 60 years' experience as a research scientist who has worked with some of the largest telescopes in the world. The text exposes much of what is glossed over in the canned information that the public get and holds nothing back with respect to uncertainties within the subject. People want answers, want somehow to be reassured that someone out there has a handle on things. This book details the basis for our knowledge of the universe, warts and all, and offers important insights as to where the science is going.

Capturing the excitement and accomplishments of X-ray astronomy, this second edition now includes a broader range of astronomical phenomena and dramatic new results from the most powerful X-ray telescopes. Covering all areas of astronomical research, ranging from the smallest to the largest objects, from neutron stars to clusters of galaxies, this textbook is ideal for undergraduate students. Each chapter starts with the basic aspects of the topic, explores the history of discoveries, and examines in detail modern observations and their significance. This new edition has been updated with results from the most recent space-based instruments, including ROSAT, BeppoSAX, ASCA, Chandra, and XMM. New chapters cover X-ray emission processes, the interstellar medium, the Solar System, and gamma-ray bursts. The text is supported by over 300 figures, with tables listing the properties of the sources, and more specialized technical points separated in boxes.

During the last two decades, optical stellar interferometry has become an important tool in astronomical investigations requiring spatial resolution well beyond that of traditional telescopes. This book, first published in 2006, was the first to be written on the subject. The authors provide an extended introduction discussing basic physical and atmospheric optics, which establishes the framework necessary to present the ideas and practice of interferometry as applied to the astronomical scene. They follow with an overview of historical, operational and planned interferometric observatories, and a selection of important astrophysical discoveries made with them. Finally, they present some as-yet untested ideas for instruments both on the ground and in space which may allow us to image details of planetary systems beyond our own.

However deficient by modern standards was the astronomical knowledge of most early astronomers, one never ceases to wonder at the completeness and precision of some of their results, derived as they were from inaccurate observations made with the naked eye or with crude instruments. The main results of astronomy that could be discovered by the naked eye actually were discovered by the best ancient observers. "Planetary Systems from the Ancient Greeks to Kepler" describes the detailed technical models whereby astronomers prior to Newton accounted for their observations. Unlike histories of science that focus on the influence of great ideas, this book presents the actual substance of those ideas and details their elaboration and development. The exposition is as geometrical as possible, reflecting the original style of the ancients. The first chapter presents the general body of observational astronomy known to the ancients and forming the subject of their explanatory endeavors. Each of the following chapters concentrates on the work of a single astronomer - Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho, and Kepler - and provides biographical details, a detailed exposition of his astronomical system, and some evaluation of the astronomer's role in the history of astronomy. Theodor S. Jacobsen is professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Washington.

This is a centennial study of Yerkes Observatory, built a century ago by the University of Chicago as one of America's first big science centres. The text describes the changing fortunes of the Observatory under its first three directors, and is illustrated with many archival photographs. Under its founder and first director, George Ellery Hale, Yerkes pioneered the new science of astrophysics. E.B. Frost, Hale's successor, allowed Yerkes to decline from 1904 to 1932, although it still trained rising young astronomers such as Edward Hubble. Finally, with the support of Robert M. Hutchins, the University of Chicago's "boy president", the "boy director" Otto Struve presided over Yerkes' revitalization in the 1930s and 1940s.

The ideal gift for all amateur and seasoned astronomers. “This is a great guide to the night sky at a great price”Astronomy Now “A handy and straightforward guide.” British Astronomical Association's 'Journal' “an ideal Christmas stocking-filler” The Observatory From the UK’s Number One Astronomy publisher, this is the bestselling stargazing handbook to the planets, stars and constellations visible from the northern hemisphere. With 6 pages for each month covering January–December 2024. This practical guide is an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful reference for seasoned stargazers. Designed for Britain and Ireland but usable anywhere in the world between 40°N and 60°N, covering most of Europe, southern Canada and the northern United States. Advice on where to start looking and a map of dark sky sites to avoid light pollution. Charts for the circumpolar and seasonal constellations. Easy-to-use star charts for each month with descriptions of objects and events to look for in 2024. Positions of the moon, visible planets and eclipses. Includes a section on comets and a detailed map of the moon. Now in three editions: Britain and Ireland; North America; Southern Hemisphere. Written and illustrated by astronomical experts, Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion, and approved by the astronomers of the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

As a new wave of interplanetary exploration unfolds, a talented young planetary scientist charts our centuries-old obsession with Mars. 'Beautifully written, emotive - a love letter to a planet' DERMOT O'LEARY, BBC Radio 2 Mars - bewilderingly empty, coated in red dust - is an unlikely place to pin our hopes of finding life elsewhere. And yet, right now multiple spacecraft are circling, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium and Mare Sirenum - on the brink, perhaps, of a discovery that would inspire humankind as much as any in our history. With poetic precision and grace, Sarah Stewart Johnson traces the evocative history of our explorations of Mars. She interlaces her personal journey as a scientist with tales of other seekers - from Galileo to William Herschel to Carl Sagan - who have scoured this enigmatic planet for signs of life and transformed it in our understanding from a distant point of light into a complex world. Ultimately, she shows how its story is also a story about Earth: it is a foil, a mirror, a tell-tale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings to find - if we're lucky - that we're not alone. 'Elegantly written and boundlessly entertaining' Sunday Telegraph 'Beguiling' The Times 'Johnson's prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multi-hued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars' Anthony Doerr, New York Times Book Review 'Elegantly crafted' Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

The ideal gift for all amateur and seasoned astronomers. This is the ideal resource for beginners and experienced stargazers in the United States and Canada, and has been updated to include new and practical information covering events occurring in North America's night sky throughout 2022. This practical guide is both an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful reference for seasoned stargazers. Now includes a section on comets and a map of the moon. Designed specifically for North America. Written and illustrated by astronomical experts, Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion, and approved by the astronomers of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Content includes: Advice on where to start looking. Easy-to-use star maps for each month with descriptions of what to see. Positions of the moon and visible planets. Details of objects and events in 2022. Now in three editions: Britain and Ireland; North America; Southern Hemisphere.

Astronomical spectrographs analyze light emitted by the Sun, stars, galaxies and other objects in the Universe, and have been used in astronomy since the early nineteenth century. This book provides a comprehensive account of spectrographs from an historical perspective, from their theory and development over the last two hundred years, to the recent advances of the early twenty-first century. The author combines the theoretical principles behind astronomical spectrograph design with their historical development. Spectrographs of all types are considered, with prism, grating or prism dispersing elements. Included are Cassegrain, coude, prime focus, echelle, fibre-fed, ultraviolet, nebular, objective prism, multi-object instruments and those which are ground-based, on rockets and balloons or in space. The book contains several tables listing the most significant instruments, around 900 references, and over 150 images, making it an indispensable reference for professional astronomers, graduate students, advanced amateur astronomers, and historians of science.

In less than a century, the accepted picture of the universe transformed from a stagnant place, composed entirely of our own Milky Way galaxy, to a realm inhabited by billions of individual galaxies, hurtling away from one another. We must thank, in part, Edwin P. Hubble, one of the greatest observational astronomers of the 20th century. In 1936, Hubble described his principal observations and conclusions in "The Realm of the Nebulae," which quickly became a classic work. Two new introductory pieces, by Robert P. Kirshner and Sean M. Carroll, explain advances since Hubble's time and his work's foundational importance.
"Meaningful, historically accurate, and thoroughly delightful reading."--Gail O. Clark, "Astronomy"

The Moon is accessible to everyone. Because it is easy to observe everywhere, even in big cities, it is a prime target for aspiring astronomers and for those who are merely curious about the night sky. This easy-to-use guide to discovering lunar sites takes the reader through fourteen observing sessions from New Moon to Full Moon. For each evening, the book shows which craters, mountains and other features can be seen, and how to find them. Each photograph shows what the observer actually sees through a telescope, solving the usual difficulties of orientation confronting beginners. Images are shown as they appear through both refracting and reflecting telescopes. Maps printed on the book's front and back flaps show the whole Moon with sites as seen through a refractor, through a Newtonian reflector, or, when turned upside-down, through binoculars. Jean Lacroux has been a columnist for the French astronomy magazine Ciel et Espace for 25 years. He has published four successful amateur astronomy books in French. Christian Legrand is an engineer and amateur astronomer, who has been a passionate lunar observer since the Apollo missions.

A concise introduction, Optical Astronomical Spectroscopy appeals to the newcomer of astronomical spectroscopy and assumes no previous specialist knowledge. Beginning from the physical background of spectroscopy with a clear explanation of energy levels and spectroscopic notation, the book proceeds to introduce the main techniques of optical spectroscopy and the range of instrumentation that is available. With clarity and directness, it then describes the applications of spectroscopy in modern astronomy, such as the solar system, stars, nebulae, the interstellar medium, and galaxies, giving an immediate appeal to beginners.