Ken M. Harrison's latest book is a complete guide for amateur astronomers who want to obtain detailed narrowband images of the Sun using a digital spectroheliograph (SHG). The SHG allows the safe imaging of the Sun without the expense of commercial 'etalon' solar filters. As the supporting software continues to be refined, the use of the digital spectroheliograph will become more and more mainstream and has the potential to replace the expensive solar filters currently in use. The early chapters briefly explain the concept of the SHG and how it can produce an image from the solar spectrum. A comparison of the currently available narrow band solar filters is followed by a detailed analysis of the critical design, construction and assembly features of the SHG. The design and optimum layout of the instrument is discussed to allow evaluation of performance. This information explains how to assemble a fully functional SHG using readily available components. The software required to process the images is explained and step by step examples provided, with various digital instruments around the world highlighted based on input from many experienced amateurs who have shared their experience in building and using their spectroheliographs. The final chapters provide a historical overview of the traditional spectroheliograph and the later spectrohelioscope, from the initial G.E.Hale and Deslandres concepts of the 1890's through to the later work by Veio and others. The construction and performance of various instruments is covered in detail, and provides a unique opportunity to record and appreciate the groundbreaking researches carried out by amateurs in the 20th century. This is an absolutely up to date book which fully addresses the watershed, game changing influence of the digital imaging revolution on the traditional spectroheliograph.

Originally published in 1906, this book presents a study of 'the history of man's conception of the Universe from the earliest historical ages to the completion of the Copernican system by Kepler in the seventeenth century'. Detailed notes and illustrative figures are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in planetary systems and the history of astronomy.

This volume presents the latest research results on solar prominences, including new developments on e.g. chirality, fine structure, magnetism, diagnostic tools and relevant solar plasma physics. In 1875 solar prominences, as seen out of the solar limb, were described by P.A. Secchi in his book Le Soleil as "gigantic pink or peach-flower coloured flames". The development of spectroscopy, coronagraphy and polarimetry brought tremendous observational advances in the twentieth century. The authors present and discuss exciting new challenges (resulting from observations made by space and ground-based telescopes in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century) concerning the diagnostics of prominences, their formation, their life time and their eruption along with their impact in the heliosphere (including the Earth). The book starts with a general introduction of the prominence "object" with some historical background on observations and instrumentation. In the next chapter, the various forms of prominences are described with a thorough attempt of classification. Their thermodynamic (and velocity) properties are then derived with emphasis on the methods (and their limits) used. This goes from the simplest optically thin case to the heavy radiative treatment of plasmas out of local thermodynamic equilibrium. The following chapters are devoted to the magnetic field measurements and indirect derivation. A new branch of diagnostic tools, the seismology, is presented along with some MHD basics. This allows to better understand the propagation of waves, the energy and force equilibria. Both small-scale and large-scale studies and their relationship are presented. The importance of the newly discovered cavities is stressed in the context of prominence destabilization. The issues of prominence formation and eruption, their connection with flares and Coronal Mass Ejections and their impact on the Earth are addressed on the basis of the latest results. Finally, an exciting new area of research is unveiled with the newly discovered evidence of similar manifestations in the Universe and their possible impact on the habitability of exoplanets. References to the basic physics (where necessary) are provided and the proposed web sites addresses will allow the reader to load exciting movies. The book is aimed at advanced students in astrophysics, post-graduates, solar physicists and more generally astrophysicists. Amateurs will enjoy the many new images which go with the text.

Venus is the brightest 'star' in the night sky and it has been observed since ancient times. Often dubbed Earth's 'twin', it is the planet most similar to the Earth in size, mass and composition. There the similarity ends: Venus is shrouded by a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, its surface is dominated by thousands of volcanoes and it lacks a protective magnetic field to shield it from energetic solar particles. So why isn't Venus more like Earth? In this book, a leading researcher of Venus addresses this question by explaining what we know through our investigations of the planet. Venus presents an intriguing case study for planetary astronomers and atmospheric scientists, especially in light of the current challenges of global warming, which supports, and potentially threatens, life on Earth. Scientifically rigorous, yet written in a friendly non-technical style, this is a broad introduction for students, and astronomy and space enthusiasts.

All phases of stellar evolution are influenced by the presence of magnetic fields in the star's interior and close environment. IAU Symposium 302 gives an overview of the emerging field of stellar magnetism. The last few years have seen the dawn of a new era in this research domain, with the advent of powerful tools strengthening both observational and modelling approaches, rapidly changing our view of the role stellar magnetism plays throughout stellar evolution. The topics covered span all phases of evolution, from the formation of stars and their early accreting years, through main sequence evolution for both low and high mass stars, and also the final stages of stellar evolution. This volume features the most recent advances achieved by major observatories (ground-based and space-borne) and through massively-parallel 3D numerical simulations, benefiting astronomers interested in the latest observational and theoretical developments in this exciting and growing field.

From a planet with a hexagonal storm to the home of the Solar System's largest volcano, our neighbouring bodies are unique and fascinating places. Where else would you find somewhere with days longer than its years? Humanity's understanding of planets has changed drastically since ancient times when early astronomers mistook the lights they saw in the sky for wandering stars. We've come a long way since then, but there's still so much we don't know. Could there be life on Mars? How many planets exist outside the Solar System? Is there another 'Earth' out there? And why can't we call Pluto a planet anymore? Discover more in this essential guide to planets in the Solar System and beyond by astronomer Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder of Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Originally published in 1949 as part of the Cambridge Monographs on Physics series, this book examines contemporary developments in the field of solar physics. An appendix on the possible origins of the sun's magnetic field is also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of the study of Earth's nearest star.

Space debris and asteroid impacts pose a very real, very near-term threat to Earth. In order to help study and mitigate these risks, the Stardust program was formed in 2013. This training and research network was devoted to developing and mastering techniques such as removal, deflection, exploitation, and tracking. This book is a collection of many of the topics addressed at the Final Stardust Conference, describing the latest in asteroid monitoring and how engineering efforts can help us reduce space debris. It is a selection of studies bringing together specialists from universities, research institutions, and industry, tasked with the mission of pushing the boundaries of space research with innovative ideas and visionary concepts. Topics covered by the Symposium: Orbital and Attitude Dynamics Modeling Long Term Orbit and Attitude Evolution Particle Cloud Modeling and Simulation Collision and Impact Modelling and Simulation, Re-entry Modeling and Simulation Asteroid Origins and Characterization Orbit and Attitude Determination Impact Prediction and Risk Analysis, Mission Analysis-Proximity Operations, Active Removal/Deflection Control Under Uncertainty, Active Removal/Deflection Technologies, and Asteroid Manipulation

Ernest William Brown (1866 1938) was a British astronomer who worked extensively on lunar theory. In this book, which was originally published in 1908, Brown's aim was to provide a comprehensive study of the effects of other planets on the motion of the moon. The text first appeared as an essay which obtained the Adams Prize in the University of Cambridge for the year 1907. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in astronomy and the history of science."

Our knowledge of Mars has changed dramatically in the past 40 years due to the wealth of information provided by Earth-based and orbiting telescopes, and spacecraft investigations. Recent observations suggest that water has played a major role in the climatic and geologic history of the planet. This textbook covers our understanding of the planet's formation, geology, atmosphere, interior, surface properties, and potential for life. This interdisciplinary textbook encompasses the fields of geology, chemistry, atmospheric sciences, geophysics, and astronomy. Each chapter introduces the necessary background information to help the non-specialist understand the topics explored. It includes results from missions through 2006, including the latest insights from Mars Express and the Mars Exploration Rovers. Containing the most up-to-date information on Mars, this textbook is essential reading for graduate courses, and an important reference for researchers.

The quantity of numbered minor planets is now approaching half a million. Together with this Addendum, the sixth edition of the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, which is the IAU's official reference for the field, now covers more than 19,000 named minor planets. In addition to being of practical value for identification purposes, the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names provides authoritative information about the basis for the rich and colorful variety of ingenious names, from heavenly goddesses to artists, from scientists to Nobel laureates, from historical or political figures to ordinary women and men, from mountains to buildings, as well as a variety of compound terms and curiosities. This Addendum to the 6th edition of the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names adds approximately 2200 entries. It also contains many corrections, revisions and updates to the entries published in earlier editions. This work is an abundant source of information for anyone interested in minor planets and who enjoys reading about the people and things minor planets commemorate.

This book investigates Venus and Mercury prospective energy and material resources. It is a collection of topics related to exploration and utilization of these bodies. It presents past and future technologies and solutions to old problems that could become reality in our life time. The book therefore is a great source of condensed information for specialists interested in current and impending Venus and Mercury related activities and a good starting point for space researchers, inventors, technologists and potential investors. Written for researchers, engineers, and businessmen interested in Venus and Mercury exploration and exploitation.

This book provides an overview of solar wind turbulence from both the theoretical and observational perspective. It argues that the interplanetary medium offers the best opportunity to directly study turbulent fluctuations in collisionless plasmas. In fact, during expansion, the solar wind evolves towards a state characterized by large-amplitude fluctuations in all observed parameters, which resembles, at least at large scales, the well-known hydrodynamic turbulence. This text starts with historical references to past observations and experiments on turbulent flows. It then introduces the Navier-Stokes equations for a magnetized plasma whose low-frequency turbulence evolution is described within the framework of the MHD approximation. It also considers the scaling of plasma and magnetic field fluctuations and the study of nonlinear energy cascades within the same framework. It reports observations of turbulence in the ecliptic and at high latitude, treating Alfvenic and compressive fluctuations separately in order to explain the transport of mass, momentum and energy during the expansion. Further, existing models are compared with direct observations in the heliosphere. The problem of self-similar and anomalous fluctuations in the solar wind is then addressed using tools provided by dynamical system theory and discussed on the basis of available models and observations. The book highlights observations of Yaglom's law in solar wind turbulence, which is one of the most important findings in fully developed turbulence and directly related to the long-lasting and still unsolved problem of solar wind plasma heating. Lastly, it includes a short chapter dedicated to the kinetic range of fluctuations, which has recently been receiving more attention from the space plasma community, since this is inherently related to turbulent energy dissipation and consequent plasma heating. It particularly focuses on the nature and role of the fluctuations populating this frequency range, and discusses several model predictions and recent observational findings in this context.

The most powerful volcanoes in the Solar System are not on Earth, but on Io, a tiny moon of Jupiter. Whilst Earth and Io are the only bodies in the Solar System to have active, high-temperature volcanoes, those found on Io are larger, hotter, and more violent. This, the first book dedicated to volcanism on Io, contains the latest results from Galileo mission data analysis. As well as investigating the different styles and scales of volcanic activity on Io, it compares these volcanoes to their contemporaries on Earth. The book also provides a background to how volcanoes form and how they erupt, and explains quantitatively how remote-sensing data from spacecraft and telescopes are analysed to reveal the underlying volcanic processes. This richly illustrated book will be a fascinating reference for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in planetary sciences, volcanology, remote sensing and geology.

Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) began his career at 16 as a human computer under the great mathematician U. J. J. Le Verrier at the Paris Observatory.  He soon tired of the drudgery; he was drawn to more romantic vistas, and at 19 wrote a book on an idea that he was to make his own—the habitability of other worlds.  There followed a career as France’s greatest popularizer of astronomy, with over 60 titles to his credit.  An admirer granted him a chateau at Juvisy-sur-l’Orge, and he set up a first-rate observatory dedicated to the study of the planet Mars. Finally, in 1892, he published his masterpiece, La Planete Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilite, a comprehensive summary of three centuries’ worth of literature on Mars, much of it based on his own personal research into rare memoirs and archives.  As a history of that era, it has never been surpassed, and remains one of a handful of indispensable books on the red planet. Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012) needs no introduction; his record of popularizing astronomy in Britain in the 20th century equaled Flammarion’s in France in the 19th century.  Moore pounded out hundreds of books as well as served as presenter of the BBC’s TV program “Sky at Night� program for 55 years (a world record).  Though Moore always insisted that the Moon was his chef-d’oeuvre, Mars came a close second, and in 1980 he produced a typescript of Flammarion’s classic.  Unfortunately, even he found the project too daunting for his publish ers and passed the torch of keeping the project alive to a friend, the amateur astronomer and author William Sheehan, in 1993. Widely regarded as a leading historian of the planet Mars,  Sheehan has not only meticulously compared and corrected Moore’s manuscript against Flammarion’s original so as to produce an authoritative text, he has  added an important introduction showing the book’s significance in the history of Mars studies.  Here results a book that remains an invaluable resource and is also a literary tour-de-force, in which the inimitable style of Flammarion has been rendered in the equally unique style of Moore.

"The Early Evolution of the Atmospheres of Terrestrial Planets" presents the main processes participating in the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets. A group of experts in the different fields provide an update of our current knowledge on this topic. Several papers in this book discuss the key role of nitrogen in the atmospheric evolution of terrestrial planets. The earliest setting and evolution of planetary atmospheres of terrestrial planets is directly associated with accretion, chemical differentiation, outgassing, stochastic impacts, and extremely high energy fluxes from their host stars. This book provides an overview of the present knowledge of the initial atmospheric composition of the terrestrial planets. Additionally it includes some papers about the current exoplanet discoveries and provides additional clues to our understanding of Earth's transition from a hot accretionary phase into a habitable world. All papers included were reviewed by experts in their respective fields. We are living in an epoch of important exoplanet discoveries, but current properties of these exoplanets do not match our scientific predictions using standard terrestrial planet models. This book deals with the main physio-chemical signatures and processes that could be useful to better understand the formation of rocky planets.

In September 2011, the GRAIL mission launched two unmanned spacecraft to the Moon, which entered into lunar orbit on December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012. They orbited the Moon until December 17, 2012, when they impacted the surface near the Moon's north pole. This book contains three review articles co-authored by the GRAIL Science Team and Guest Scientists that describe the reasons for the GRAIL mission, the development of the necessary technology, and the design of the mission to acquire the most precise measurements of the lunar gravity field possible today. The book provides a detailed description of the GRAIL mission's scientific objectives, the instrumentation and its required performance, the complex simulation of the measurement system for determining the gravity field, and the innovative education and public outreach of the mission directed toward middle-school students who could select areas of the Moon for imaging with the onboard MoonKam camera system. This volume is aimed at researchers and graduate students active in solar system science and planetology. Originally published in Space Science Reviews journal, Vol. 178/1, 2013.

Description: How did the Sun evolve, and what will it become? What is the origin of its light and heat? How does solar activity affect the atmospheric conditions that make life on Earth possible? These are the questions at the heart of solar physics, and at the core of this book. The Sun is the only star near enough to study in sufficient detail to provide rigorous tests of our theories and help us understand the more distant and exotic objects throughout the cosmos. Having observed the Sun using both ground-based and spaceborne instruments, the authors bring their extensive personal experience to this story revealing what we have discovered about phenomena from eclipses to neutrinos, space weather, and global warming. This second edition is updated throughout, and features results from the current spacecraft that are aloft, especially NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, for which one of the authors designed some of the telescopes.

Planet formation studies uniquely benefit from three disciplines: astronomical observations of extrasolar planet-forming disks, analysis of material from the early Solar System, and laboratory astrophysics experiments. Pre-planetary solids, fine dust, and chondritic components are central elements linking these studies. This book is the first comprehensive overview of planet formation, in which astronomers, cosmochemists, and laboratory astrophysicists jointly discuss the latest insights from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, new interferometers, space missions including Stardust and Deep Impact, and laboratory techniques. Following the evolution of solids from their genesis through protoplanetary disks to rocky planets, the book discusses in detail how the latest results from these disciplines fit into a coherent picture. This volume provides a clear introduction and valuable reference for students and researchers in astronomy, cosmochemistry, laboratory astrophysics, and planetary sciences.

How did the Sun evolve, and what will it become? What is the origin of its light and heat? How does solar activity affect the atmospheric conditions that make life on Earth possible? These are the questions at the heart of solar physics, and at the core of this book. The Sun is the only star near enough to study in sufficient detail to provide rigorous tests of our theories and help us understand the more distant and exotic objects throughout the cosmos. Having observed the Sun using both ground-based and spaceborne instruments, the authors bring their extensive personal experience to this story revealing what we have discovered about phenomena from eclipses to neutrinos, space weather, and global warming. This second edition is updated throughout, and features results from the current spacecraft that are aloft, especially NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, for which one of the authors designed some of the telescopes.

This book introduces the theory of stellar atmospheres. Almost everything we know about stars is by analysis of the radiation coming from their atmospheres. Several aspects of astrophysics require accurate atmospheric parameters and abundances. Spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools at an astronomer’s disposal, allowing the determination of the fundamental parameters of stars: surface temperature, gravity, chemical composition, magnetic field, rotation and turbulence. These can be supplemented by distance measurements or pulsation parameters providing information about stellar interior and stellar evolution, otherwise unavailable. The volume is based on lectures presented at the Wrocław's Spectroscopic School aimed at training young researchers in performing quantitative spectral analysis of low-, mid-, and high-resolution spectra of B, A, and F-type stars.

In 2004, it became obvious that Henry Hatfield's original atlas wasn't suitable for all current commercially-made amateur telescopes. Newtonian telescopes and astronomical refractors - for many years the only choice for amateurs - invert the observed image. The standard Hatfield Atlas therefore follows the IAU (International Astronomical Union) convention of having maps (and photographs) with South at the top and West on the left: an inverted image. However, the current ranges of Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov telescopes - that's most of those manufactured by Meade, Celestron, and many others - don't invert the observed image but instead reverse it left-for-right. That's with North at the top and East on the left. Because of the way the human visual system works, it is almost impossible to mentally 'mirror-image' a map to compare it with the view through the eyepiece , so even turning an IAU-standard atlas upside-down doesn't help! This new SCT version of the Atlas solves this problem for observers. Identification of lunar features is made quick and easy. The new, digitally re-mastered second edition vastly improves the clarity and definition of the original photographs - significantly beyond the resolution limits of the photographic grains present in earlier atlas versions - whilst preserving the layout and style of the original publications. This has been achieved by merging computer-visualized Earth-based views of the lunar surface, derived from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, with scanned copies of Commander Hatfield's photographic plates, using the author's own software. The result is a The Hatfield SCT Lunar Atlas for 21st century amateur telescopes up to and beyond 12-inch aperture. It contains all the features that made the original so widely used: a combination of an index of all International Astronomical Union named primary lunar features, and twelve chart areas help to locate any named lunar features of interest that can each be examined under typically five different states of illumination. Close ups of interesting features are also included. The new Atlas is supplemented by an introduction to its use, a short description of the digital re-mastering technique, and a completely new section describing lunar observing techniques. At the end of the atlas there is an index of all named features and crater diameters, along with a summary table of the dates and times that the original Hatfield images represent.

Astronomer Peter Linde takes the reader through the story of the search for extraterrestrial life in a captivating and thought-provoking way, specifically addressing the new research that is currently devoted towards discovering other planets with life. He discusses the methods used to detect possible signals from other civilizations and the ways that the space sciences are changing as a result of this new field. "Are we alone?" is a mystery that has forever fascinated mankind, gaining momentum by scientists since the 1995 discovery of the existence of exoplanets began to inspire new ways of thinking in astronomy. Here, Linde tries to answer many philosophical questions that derive from this area of research: Is humanity facing a change of paradigm, that we are not unique as intelligent beings? Is it possible to communicate with others out there, and even if we can-should we?

This book focuses on the impact dynamics and cratering of soft matter to describe its importance, difficulty, and wide applicability to planetary-related problems. A comprehensive introduction to the dimensional analysis and constitutive laws that are necessary to discuss impact mechanics and cratering is first provided. Then, particular coverage is given to the impact of granular matter, which is one of the most crucial constituents for geophysics. While granular matter shows both solid-like and fluid-like behaviors, neither solid nor fluid dynamics is sufficient to fully understand the physics of granular matter. In order to reveal its fundamental properties, extensive impact tests have been carried out recently. The author reveals the findings of these recent studies as well as what remains unsolved in terms of impact dynamics. Impact crater morphology with various soft matter impacts also is discussed intensively. Various experimental and observational results up to the recent Itokawa asteroid's terrain and nanocrater are reviewed and explained mainly by dimensional analysis. The author discusses perspectives of the relation between soft matter physics and planetary science, because it is an important step towards unifying physics and planetary science, in both of which fields crater morphology has been studied independently.

The movement of the moon in space had been well documented by the second half of the nineteenth century. In this monograph, which first appeared in 1874, James Nasmyth (1808-90) and James Carpenter (1840-99) pay closer attention to the lunar surface, notably illustrating their work with photographs of accurate plaster models. At this time, many questions about the moon's properties were still open. Could the moon support life? Did it have an atmosphere? How had its craters been formed? Marshalling the latest available evidence, Nasmyth and Carpenter provide their answers in a text accompanied by explanatory diagrams. Also included are theories on planetary formation, a discussion of lunar volcanism, and a vivid imagining of a day on the moon's surface, describing everything from low lunar gravity to the sudden, monthly sunrise. The work remains an instructive resource, reflecting the state of contemporary astronomical knowledge.