What is the best book on cosmology for all levels of knowledge?

[think]

I would be thankful to you, if you tell me which book do you consider to be best, on the subject of cosmology, for:

1. Begineers
2. Intermediates
3. Advanced

Thanks in advanced.

 

[LogicalAtheist]

I can only speak for beginners:

1. Go to your book store, I good one with a good selection, and look for the big black book that has a lot of high quality photo pages of nebulas and other great things. It's kind of a visual (and textual) encyclopedia on the various occurances at different levels of magnification. It's a visual orgasm, or perhaps multiple visual orgasms. But not a cheap thrill mind you as it's a bit expensive.

 

[lasm2000]

I don't know if it will still help you after so many months on your original post. Anyway, assuming you are a physics student and want the real deal, try these ones:

Beginner: An Introduction to Modern Cosmology, Andrew Liddle

Intermediate: Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction, Ta-Pei Cheng

Advanced: The next three cover all of the "core" of cosmology in a no nonsense fashion, I indicate what I find its particular strength:

Modern Cosmology by Scott Dodelson (want to calculate something in the cmb? some linear perturbation? it is surely here)

Physical Foundations of Cosmology by Viatcheslav Mukhanov (perturbation theory from the man that developed it)

Cosmology by Steven Weinberg (the ultimate reference on the topic of cosmology, period).

For the "grand view" I believe The Early Universe by Kolb and Turner is still excellent despite its age.

Very focused:

The Primordial Density Perturbation: Cosmology, Inflation and the Origin of Structure by Liddle and Lyth.

Elements of String Cosmology by Maurizio Gasperini.

These two ones are obviously for aspiring theoreticians in early universe. What if you are more about Large Scale Structure, then try

Galaxy Formation and Evolution by Houjun Mo, Frank van den Bosch and Simon White.

If you are more into the data analysis of tons of data using modern methods then go for

Bayesian Methods in Cosmology by Hobson, Liddle et al.

Hope it helped.

 

[CosmicEye]

good info for me. Any authors too look for/ stay away from?

My local library has a pretty short selection in space stuff

 

[mjacobsca]

My favorite is Big Bang, by Simon Singh. It is a beginner's introduction to the history of cosmology from ancient times to today, covering most all cosmological views of the universe from ancient times up to and including the battle between the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Singh is a fabulous storyteller. He makes the subject extremely compelling.