Astronomical Tidbits: A Layperson's Guide to Astronomy

List of Illustrations for Astronomical Tidbits
Preface

Part 1—constellations & sky mythology
1. The Big Dipper
2. Arc to Arcturus and Speed On to Spica
3. Mysterious Sirius
4. Algol: The Demon Star
5. Orion’s Armpit: The Story of the Supergiant Betelgeuze
6. Orion: The Hunter in Winter
7. The Summer Triangle
8. Taurus and the Pleiades
9. The Heart of the Scorpion
10. The Pole Star and the Little Bear
11. How Do We Know What We Know? A Close Shave With Occam’s Razor

Part 2—Earth & moon
12. What is on the “Dark Side of the Moon”?
13. Have You Seen “The Moon Illusion”?
14. Ozone Depletion: An Environmental Near-Miss
15. Passage Into Darkness: Lunar Eclipses
16. Phases of the Moon: What Are They?
17. Plate Tectonics: Will the Giants and Dodgers Again Be Cross-Town Rivals?
18. Sun at Latitude Zero: The Vernal Equinox
19. Thank Heavens For the Greenhouse Effect: Without It We’d Be Cold Toast
20. The Catastrophic Origin of the Moon: A New Theory
21. The Moon: When Will It Pop Up Next?
22. Meteors and Meteor Showers
23. The Midnight Sun: Days Without End
24. Meteorites: Rocks That Fall From the Sky
25. The Day the Sun Stood Still: The Summer Solstice
26. Life: Just Where Did It Come From?
27. Fire in the Sky: The Day Life on Earth Almost Ended
28. The Sun Also Rises: Or Does It?
29. What’s so Blue About a Blue Moon?
30. “Houston, The Eagle Has Landed”: The Epic Flight of Apollo 11
31. A Moon for One Season: The Story of the Harvest Moon
32. A Tale of Dust and Gravity: The Origin of Earth
33. Fire and Ice: How the Earth Will Die
34. Sun Over the Equator: The Autumnal Equinox
35. The Age of the Earth
36. Just Who is the Person in the Moon?
37. Global Warming

Part 3—The Sun, Solar System & Stars
38. Solar Energy: Where Does It Come From?
39. Pluto: The Major Planet That Isn’t?
40. Comets: A Tale of Two Tails
41. Ceres: A Not-So-Minor Planet
42. Darkness at Noon: Total Solar Eclipses
43. Is the Sun a “Special” Star?
44. Jupiter: Colossus of the Solar System
45. Mars: Our Next Step in Exploration
46. Mercury: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
47. Minor Planets: Are They a Threat to Earth?
48. Saturn: Rings, Rings, and More Rings
49. The Day the Music Died: The Death of the Sun
50. The Return of Sol: The Winter Solstice
51. Uranus: The Tipped Planet
52. Venus: Hellhole of the Solar System
53. Neptune: The Planet that Refused to be Discovered
54. Driving to Pluto: The Size and Scale of the Solar System
55. Orbits: How They Work
56. The Solar System: A Well-Decorated Place with a Good View
57. Planet X: Does It Exist?
58. A Mysterious Wind
59. Spots on the Sun: The Sun’s Magnetic Cycle
60. A Cosmic Year: The Solar Odyssey

Part 4—The Milky Way, Galaxies & Cosmology
61. Are They Out There? The Discovery of Exoplanets
62. The Dog Star: Beacon of the Night Sky
63. Hubble Discovers the Universe
64. The Big Bang vs. the Steady State
65. Gravity Waves
66. It’s a Matter of Time
67. Sagittarius and the Galactic Center
68. Stellar Genesis: The Birth of Stars
69. The Expansion of the Universe
70. The Milky Way: The Via Lactea
71. The Mystery of the Accelerating Universe: Dark Energy
72. Seeing Into the Past
73. The Twin Paradox
74. The Missing Mass in the Universe
75. The Shape of the Universe
76. Is the Universe a Black Hole?
77. The Special Theory of Relativity
78. The General Theory of Relativity
79. Is Time Travel Possible?
80. E=mc2: What Does it Mean, Anyway?
81. Main Sequence Stars
82. Nucleosynthesis and Mass Ejection: The Reason We Are Here
83. Is Our Oatmeal Lumpy?: The Structure of the Universe
84. Henrietta Leavitt: Opening the Book of the Universe
85. The Creation of Matter: The First Three Minutes in the Life of the Universe
86. Giants and Supergiants
87. Planetary Nebulae
88. It’s a Matter of Spacetime
89. Do Neutrinos Have Standing?
90. Black Holes, White Holes, and Worm Holes
91. Supernovae
92. Harlow Shapley: Galactic Cartographer
93. A Hundred Billion Stars: Who Counted Them?
94. Star Clusters: Jewels of the Milky Way
95. Neutron Stars and Pulsars
96. Life in the Universe, Part I: The Drake Equation
97. Life in the Universe, Part II: The Components
98. Life in the Universe, Part III: SETI
99. White Dwarf Stars
100. Quasars: Looking Back to the Birth of Galaxies
101. Triumph in Greece: The Invention of Science
102. “Let’s Try the Sun at the Center”: The Copernican Revolution
103. Kepler, Brahe, and Galileo to the Rescue
104. God said, “Let there be light,” and There was Newton
105. Pinwheels of Stardust: The Structure of Galaxies

TIDBITS GLOSSARY
Appendices
A. Major Planet Data
B. 20 Brightest Stars As Visible From Earth
C. Constellations
D. Astronomical/Physical Equations