Looking for a good book

[Matt Jacques]

I am having a hard time finding a good book on celestial mechanics, any recommendations?

[enigma]

Well,

In this (http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14672) thread I recommended Fundamentals of Astrodynamics and Applications by Vallado.

It does depend on the level of your math abilities and the depth which you want to delve. That book goes has pretty much anything you would want to learn about, but the math can get pretty hairy.

[Matt Jacques]

I just searched the Noble (North of Boston Library exchange) library network and no exact matches [:(]

This was the only match, infact:

http://innopac.noblenet.org/search/tFundamentals+of+Astrodynamics+and+Applications/tfundamentals+of+astrodynamics+and+applications/-6,0,0,B/frameset&FF=tfundamentals+of+astrodynamics&1,1,

I just started Differential Equations, but I skipped Calculus III because it wasn't offered this semester.

[enigma]

I've heard that Bate, Mueller and White is a decent book. I haven't looked at it myself, though.

this (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/textbooks/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2WWUAGCB2E&isbn=0792369033&TXT=Y&itm=1) is the book I've got.

TL1050 .V35 2001

[Matt Jacques]

A bit expensive and not at my library :(

[steve stillman]

My copy looks promising. Its called Fundimentals of Astrodynamics by Roger R. Bate Donald D Mueller and Jerryr E White, 1971, 454 pages,14$, and continuously in reprint at Dover Publications Inc. I have their hard copy winter 2004 catalog of Math and Science. You can order online at doverpublications.com. It has a altitude vs lethal radiation dose. There is a narrow window of safety at 200 miles altitude when inside metal sheilding.

A related book I like is Introduction to Space Dynamics by WIlliam Tyrrell Thomson, 1986, 315 pages, 15$, and still in reprint at DOver. I explains jet stabilization and near ground gravity turns. Very interesting.


Steve Stillman

[AD]

Shouldn't there be a distinction made between celestial mechanics and astrodynamics? I thought that astrodynamics was the name given to the more practical engineering aspects of spacecraft dynamics, control and navigation. Whereas celestial mechanics is looking only a planets and their satellites and not really concerned with travelling around and between them.

BMW is decent, and it is also dirt cheap. As is Thomson, although that's more to do with attitude control and associated things, rather than celestial mechanics, I think. Dover also do another book called An Introduction to Celestial Mechanics, although it is a re-print of a text from the very early twentieth century.

A lot of general physics, and especially mechanics, textbooks have sections on celestial mechanics. And so do some astronomy texts.