Simple Astronomy
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2022
Edition: 2
Copyright: 2022
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Nearly everyone knows something about astronomy - the phases of the moon, or how to find the constellation Orion in the sky, or some of the bizarre phenomena that accompany black holes. But a lot of basic astronomy is simply not taught in most high schools; then, when students sign up for a college introductory course on the subject, they're immediately overwhelmed by a lot of terms and concepts they'd never heard of.
In Simple Astonomy, these new ideas are explained in basic, conversational English, with a view toward understanding how we have come to know as much as we do about the Universe, and our place among the stars.
Chapter 1 telling time, Seeing Stars
Ghost Lines in the Sky
The Earth’s Rotation Causes Day and Night
The Order of the Zodiac
A Time and a Season
The Reasons for the Seasons
Whence the Week?
Stars and Constellations
Constellations VS. Asterisms
Finding the North Star; Circumpolar Constellations
Constellations & 1st Magnitude (The Very Brightest) Stars
Chapter 2 the Moon in our Sky
A Month of Moons
Merry-Go-Round Moon
Just Mooning Around
The Moon’s Features
New Moon = No Moon
Earthshine
Wax On, Wax Off
Half Moon = Quarter Moon
Gibbous? Eggsactly!
Moonrise, Moonset
Synodic VS Sidereal
Why Do We See Only One Side of the Moon?
Chapter 3 Very Early Historic Astronomy
Really Amazingly Old Observations
Ancient Knowledge, Stories and Models of the Universe
The Stars of the Pharaohs
Egyptian Constellations and Planets
Constant as the North Star?
Chapter 4 The Greek Astronomers
Perfect VS. Imperfect
Star Designations
Planet Symbols
Ozymandias
Planet Configurations and Terms
Chapter 5 Renaissance Astronomy (16th and 17th Century Europe)
Copernicus
Johannes (John) Kepler
Kepler’s Laws
Galileo Galilei
Top Five Things You Know about Galileo That Are Pretty Much Wrong
The Successors to Galileo
Chapter 6 All About Eclipses
A Solar Eclipse Account
Coronas and Prominences
Transits
Occultations
Solar Viewing Safety
Bell’s Solar and Lunar Eclipses for years 2021 – 2032. Times are Eastern Standard (EST) or Eastern Daylight (EDT)
Chapter 7 Newton, Rockets and the Space Age
A Weighty Matter
Newton’s First Law of Motion: Inertia
Newton’s Second Law of Motion: F = ma
Newton’s Third Law of Motion: Action-Reaction
Getting Off the Earth: Rocketry and the Space Age
Regarding Travel into Outer Space and to the Moon
The Father of Rocketry
Achieving Earth Orbit; Reaching the Moon
Chapter 8 The “Double Planet” – Earth and Moon
Tides and the Moon
Home Sweet Home: The Earth and the Moon
Why Doesn’t the Back of the Moon Look Like the Front?
Tectonic Activity on Earth
Tectonics on the Moon?
Chapter 9 Neighbor Worlds: The Inner Solar System
Solar System Overview
The Sun’s Features
The Secret of the Sun’s Success
Sussing Celsius
The Sun’s Gravity Bends Light
Mercury: Nice Place; No Atmosphere
Venus: Our Sister Planet
Closeup on Mars
The Two Moons of Mars – Captured Asteroids?
Rocks From Space
The Source of the Meteorites
How to Identify a Meteorite
Meteorite Types
Chapter 10 Gas Giants and Ice Dwarfs – The Outer Solar System
By Jove!
Saturn: Lord of the Rings
Seeing Rings
The Musician Who Found a Planet
Uranus, the Sideways Planet
Neptune – Far Out!
Pluto: Disrespected World
The Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud and Comets
The Formation of the Solar System – Theories on How It All Began
The Solar Nebula Theory
So What are the Evidences for the Solar Nebula Theory?
Ad Astra
Chapter 11 Stars and Nebulae
The Beginnings of Deep Space
The Comet Ferret
The Deep View, the Celestial Zoo
There are Stars, and Then There are Stars
Commonest Stars, Rarest Stars
Star Clusters
The Light Fantastic: Briefly Back to Newton
Weird Newton Factoids
Spectral Classes
The Spectroscope and the Message of Starlight
The Doppler Effect
Cataloguer to the Stars
The Speed of Light
Light Years and Parsecs
The Stars Are Moving, Most Stars Are Double
Chapter 12 The Life and Death of Stars
OBAFGKM
Inverse Square Law of Light and the Absolute Magnitude of Stars
The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
The Birth and Death of Stars
Goodbye Sun
Nova VS Supernova
Neutron Stars and Black Holes
Chapter 13 The Milky Way, Our Home Galaxy
I Wonder If I Can Count All the Stars in the Sky?
The Irish Leviathan
Cepheid Variables and Henrietta Leavitt
Great Galaxy!
Galaxy Types
Home Galaxy Tour
Star Types in the Galaxy: Where Did We Come from?
Chapter 14 Galaxies and Cosmology
Getting the Really Big Picture
There are Clusters, and then there are Clusters
Dark Matter and Black Holes in the Great Beyond
Galactic Collisions, Mergings and Outright Cannibalism
Gravitational Lenses
Cosmology 101
Olber’s Paradox
Expanding Universe
Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Baryonic Universe
Big Bang, Big Crunch, Oscillating Universe, Steady State Cosmos
Cosmic Background Radiation
Recent Cosmological Discoveries to Consider
Looking Out in Space, Looking Back in Time
Summary of Theories about the Beginning and End of the Universe