Synopses & Reviews
This unique encyclopedia provides a fascinating and fully comprehensive description of stars and their natures and is filled with beautiful color images. The book begins by telling the story of astronomy, from ancient constellations and star names to the modern coordinate system. Further chapters explain magnitudes, distances, star motions and the Galaxy at large. Double stars, clusters and variables are introduced and once the different kinds of stars are in place, later chapters examine stellar evolution, beginning with the interstellar medium and star formation, proceeding to our Sun and its characteristics and then the ageing process of solar-type and high mass stars. The book ends by showing how this information can be combined into a grand synthesis. Detailed cross-referencing enables the reader to explore topics in depth and makes this an invaluable work both for beginners and those with a more advanced interest in stars and stellar evolution.
Review
"A valuable resource." -- Library Journal"A valuable resource." -- Booklist
Synopsis
This unique encyclopedia provides a fascinating and fully comprehensive description of stars and their natures.
About the Author
Jim Kaler is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Table of Contents
1. Stars and constellations; 2. Location; 3. Magnitudes; 4. Distances; 5. The galaxy in motion; 6. Spectra and the HR diagram; 7. Stellar properties; 8. Double and multiple stars; 9. Star clusters and associations; 10. Variable stars; 11. Star formation; 12. Sun and main sequence; 13. Stellar evolution; 14. High mass evolution.