Astronomy for beginners

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I am interested in studying astronomy.
What books would you recommend for a beginner in this subject? I have a fairly strong knowledge in Physics and Math.

[George Jones]

I am interested in studying astronomy.
What books would you recommend for a beginner in this subject? I have a fairly strong knowledge in Physics and Math.

For astrophysics, I recommend Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley M. Peterson,

http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Astrophysics-Barbara-Ryden/dp/0321595580/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1287100723&sr=1-2,

and

An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley W. Carroll and Dale A. Ostlie,

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Modern-Astrophysics-Bradley-Carroll/dp/0805304029/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b.

[ArthurIhde]

hmm i am just a newbie at astronomyhttp://www.focustracker.com/i/smilies/smile.gif

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Hm, I am looking for a book that introduces astronomy - not sure if a Astrophysics book would cover it. It should explain things like celestial sphere, tides, eclipses, spherical coordinates, doppler shift, hertzprung-russell diagrams, stellar evolution, some features of the main stars and constellations.

I'm NOT looking those books aimed at children or the layperson, but one that shows the math behind the phenomenon. I do have a solid knowledge of Mechanics, but no General Relativity of Quantum Mechanics book, please.

[turbo]

I started in observational astronomy and bought the 3-volume set of Burnham's. Next was the Deep Sky Observers set, and then better and better atlases. Tirion's atlases have always been top-drawer. If you want books that address tides, eclipses, etc, it might be tough to distill that down into a few good books.

[Ryker]

Hm, I am looking for a book that introduces astronomy - not sure if a Astrophysics book would cover it. It should explain things like celestial sphere, tides, eclipses, spherical coordinates, doppler shift, hertzprung-russell diagrams, stellar evolution, some features of the main stars and constellations.

I'm NOT looking those books aimed at children or the layperson, but one that shows the math behind the phenomenon. I do have a solid knowledge of Mechanics, but no General Relativity of Quantum Mechanics book, please.Maybe something like Universe by Roger A. Freedman (http://www.amazon.ca/Universe-Roger-Freedman/dp/0716785846/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1287706923&sr=8-2) then?

[Acut]

Thank you Turbo-1 and Ryker!
But I still need books regarding the basics of astronomical theory, something along the lines of
http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy/introduction/05.motion_planets/index.html

[Ryker]

Well, the stuff that's on that website is covered in the book I suggested. I don't know how rigorous you want it to be or how that book would compare to the desired standard, though. But basically, we're going to be using the book in both of our introductory astronomy classes on our solar system and later stars in general.