Recommendations for a basic Astronomy textbook

[Greg Craven]

Summary: Looking for a textbook to bring a high school Physics teacher up to speed on basic astronomy.

I've been teaching high school Physics and Chemistry for 18 years. I've been tapped to teach an Astronomy course next year, despite never having taken an actual astronomy course. Given the demographics of my school, it won't be a highly rigorous course.

So I'm looking for recommendations for a good undergraduate-level survey text on Astronomy for me to read over the summer that will give me the basics. To be clear, I am not looking for recommendations for a high school level textbooks for my students. We don't have the money for textbooks for the class, so I'll be taking over the retiring teacher's cobbled-together curriculum.

Thanks much!

 

[jedishrfu]

Checkout openstax.org. They have a good free astro ebook.

 

[Greg Craven]

Checkout openstax.org. They have a good free astro ebook.

I'd never heard of Openstax.org, but it sounds like an amazing project. Thanks for the tip!