Astronomy Explained [Paperback]

Going beyond the superficial treatments found in coffee-table astronomy books, this book provides comprehensive treatment of astronomy in depth, offering comprehensible explanations of how and why things are as they are. Comprehensive in its coverage, the book includes self-study questions at the end: of each chapter.Every year large numbers of people take up the study of astronomy, mostly at amateur level. There are plenty of elementary books on the market, full of colourful photographs, but lacking in proper explanations of how and why things are as they are. Many people eventually wish to go beyond the 'coffee-table book' stage and study this fascinating subject in greater depth. This book is written for them. In addition, many people sit for public examinations in this subject each year and this book is also intended to be of use to them. All the topics from the GCSE syllabus are covered here, with sample questions at the end of each chapter. Astronomy Explained provides a comprehensive treatment of the subject in more depth than is usually found in elementary works, and will be of interest to both amateur astronomers and students of astronomy.1 The Celestial Sphere.- 1.1 The Concept of the Celestial Sphere.- 1.2 Latitude and Longitude.- 1.3 Declination and Right Ascension.- 1.4 The Altitude of the Celestial Equator and Poles.- 1.5 The Starry Vault.- 1.6 A Better Definition of Right Ascension.- 1.7 To Calculate the Maximum Altitude of a Star.- 1.8 Circumpolar Stars.- 1.9 Stars that Never Rise.- 1.10 Azimuth.- 1.11 The Earth in Space.- 1.12 The Seasons.- 1.13 The Moon and the Celestial Sphere.- 1.14 The Solar System and the Celestial Sphere.- 1.15 Stellar Motions.- 1.16 Precession.- Questions.- 2 The Earth and Time.- 2.1 The Shape and Size of the Earth.- 2.2 The Earth in the Solar System.- 2.3 The Structure of the Earth.- 2.4 The Surface Conditions on the Earth.- 2.5 The Atmosphere of the Earth.- 2.6 The Ionosphere.- 2.7 TlÓ4