Drawing on exciting discoveries of the last forty years, Night Vision explores how infrared astronomy, an essential tool for modern astrophysics and cosmology, helps astronomers reveal our universe's most fascinating phenomena from the birth of stars in dense clouds of gas, to black holes and distant colliding galaxies, and the traffic of interstellar dust from the formation of our Solar System. While surveying the progress in infrared observation, astronomer Michael Rowan-Robinson introduces readers to the pioneering scientists and engineers who painstakingly developed infrared astronomy over the past two hundred years. Accessible and well-illustrated, this comprehensive volume is written for the interested science reader, amateur astronomer, or university student, while researchers in astronomy and the history of science will find Rowan-Robinson's detailed notes and references a valuable resource.

This is a substantially revised and updated new edition of a classic introductory textbook. Although there are a wealth of cosmology texts at postgraduate level, 'Cosmology' remains the classic introduction to modern cosmology for undergraduates. While designed as the main text for a course given at second or third year level, it is sufficiently self-contained for anyone with school science to understand. There is a strong emphasis on observational cosmology, with introductory chapters on the visible universe, our galaxy and other galaxies and the empirical basis for cosmological theory. After an account of the big bang model, there are chapters on the early stages of the big bang and galaxy formation. Finally, there are chapters on cosmological tests and on alternative theories. One feature of the book is its updated epilogue of twenty controversies in cosmology today. The latest results from the WMAP mission are included and a wealth of new material, including a stronger emphasis on the cosmological constant. It has an extensive glossary and the exercises have been substantially expanded. A stronger emphasis on the physical basis for cosmology is included throughout.