Need Help Finding Astrophysics Book

[sk3ptic76]

I am a high school student that has been taking astrophysics and astronomy as an independent study for the last couple of months. I would appreciate any recommendations on books that would better my understanding of the topics. The following are a few of the books that I already own.
1. The Elegant Universe
2. The Universe in a Nutshell
3. The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality
4. God created the Integers
5. The Road to Reality
6. The Book of the Cosmos
7. Astronomy Demystified
8. The First Three Minutes
9. Dreams of a Final Theory

 

[MotoH]

*Zelʹdovich, I︠A︡ B., and I. D. Novikov. Relativistic astrophysics. Chicago: University of Chicago P, 1971.

I used that book in one of my research papers. It is pretty good.

 

[fasterthanjoao]

I am a high school student that has been taking astrophysics and astronomy as an independent study for the last couple of months. I would appreciate any recommendations on books that would better my understanding of the topics. The following are a few of the books that I already own.
1. The Elegant Universe
2. The Universe in a Nutshell
3. The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality
4. God created the Integers
5. The Road to Reality
6. The Book of the Cosmos
7. Astronomy Demystified
8. The First Three Minutes
9. Dreams of a Final Theory

These are popular science books as opposed to textbooks - are you looking for more popular science books or books from which you can learn physics?

At what stage in high school are you?

 

[sk3ptic76]

I am a junior in high school. I would prefer books from which I can learn astrophysics...

 

[Nabeshin]

5. The Road to Reality

Have you read it?! Very much a higher level than the other books I recognize (greene, hawking, etc).

Unfortunately for you, in order to learn astrophysics you need to learn physics. And in order to do that you need to learn mathematics. Really the only road to a deeper understanding of the stuff in these books (and much more) comes through a standard university education. Of course, one could imagine reading the texts without taking the actual classes, but the point is you would need to work through physics textbooks. There's simply no way around that.

Much of astrophysics is immensely complicated, so that you cannot even do a detailed study of it until junior or senior year of undergraduate. Maybe you could start with a text like this (if you're interested in black holes):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/020138423X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Most introductory astronomy textbooks don't require calculus and you could try to get a hold on one of those if you wanted, but I always find them terribly boring and simplistic.

 

[sk3ptic76]

thanks for the help, and yah i was holding of road to reality until i had a better understanding of mathematics...

 

[ansgar]

Astrophysics in a Nutshell

Universe, by kaufmann & freedman (there are up to the 9th edition, an earlier will work just fine!)

Cosmic Perspective, by Bennett (also, there are up to the 5th edition, try to find a cheap early edition)

use amazon or alibris.com

Good luck

 

[Anthony A]

Hello,

Astrophysics and Astronomy tend to be fascinating. Here are a few of the many books I own that you may enjoy:

Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation by Michael V. Berry
Foundations of Modern Cosmology by John Frederick Hawley
Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide by Clifford A. Pickover
An Introduction to Galaxies and Cosmology by Mark H. Jones
Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos by Iain Nicolson
Modern Cosmology by Scott Dodelson
The Early Universe by Edward W. Kolb
An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure by S. Chandrasekhar
100 Billion Suns: The Birth, Life, and Death of the Stars by Rudolf Kippenhahn


Hope this helped!