	Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets (Springer Praxis Books / Popular Astronomy) by Alessandra Celletti (Author), Ettore Perozzi (Author) The common perception of Celestial Mechanics is that of a discipline which needs advanced mathematics and astronomy to be understood. Yet modern Celestial Mechanics has a rather different taste and a truly interdisciplinary nature. The number of celestial objects known to mankind has dramatically increased, the long-awaited presence of extrasolar planets has been eventually detected around other stars, spaceflight dynamics has brought new applications encompassing rocked dynamics, the...
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	Distant Worlds: Milestones in Planetary Exploration by Peter Bond (Author) This book recounts the epic saga of how we as human beings have come to understand the Solar System. The story of our exploration of the heavens, Peter Bond reminds us, began thousands of years ago, with the naked-eye observations of the earliest scientists and philosophers. Over the centuries, as our knowledge and understanding inexorably broadened and deepened, we faltered many times, frequently labored under misconceptions, and faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles to understanding....

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
While most amateur astronomers know about the red shift, have a general idea of the way that the emission and absorption lines in stellar spectra provide an insight into the atomic processes of the star, it is unusual to find someone who has any kind of detailed knowledge. The reason isn’t lack on interest – far from it – but is because all the books currently available are pitched at professional astronomers and degree students, and are to say the least, difficult to read. This is the first non-technical book on this subject, written specifically for practical amateur astronomers. It includes all the science necessary for a qualitative understanding of stellar spectra, but avoids a mathematical treatment which would alienate many of its intended readers. Any amateur astronomer who carries out (or who is interested in) observational spectroscopy and who wants a non-technical account of the physical processes which determine the intensity and profile morphology of lines in stellar spectra will find this is the only book written specially for him. And of course, "armchair astronomers" who simply want to understand the physical processes which shape lines in stellar spectra will find this book equally fascinating.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 1 review)

The dawn of a new epoch of amateur astronomy by Luis Barneo Serra

5 Stars
August 05, 2007
This is the book that I was expecting for along time. As Professor of Surgery I have to read medical textbooks, and I appreciate those concise volumes dedicated to medical students that can help me, then I suppose that this book could be useful to astrophysics too, not only to amateur astronomers like me. The aims of Robinson's book have been successful: to explain the physical processes that cause the stellar spectra with a language understandable. I am very grateful to Robinson that the important concepts are showed repeatedly along the book. He teaches us how the quantum theory explains all spectral mysteries. Starting with the electromagnetic radiation, the black body concept, Robinson expounds in great detail, but very understandable, the electron transition, the energy levels (the famous Ha line), and the consequences when a photon collides with an atom (excitation, ionisation). The quantum numbers are depicted very well with clear diagrams, and how they determine the energy levels and the spectral series. Up to here, it is the atom lab information; but the stellar objects are very complexes: objects with velocity (the famous Doppler effect), and atmospheres with temperature, pressure, and turbulence..., physical processes that cause the broadening of spectral lines. Robinson details the spectral line profiles with examples useful to amateur astronomers. After to expound the absorption lines and the emission lines, Robinson explains the whys the nebulae, with gas that absorb the photons of the central star, have emission lines instead of absorption lines. Robinson use the chapter of accretion disks as pretext of to speak us that amateurs astronomers could performer astrophysical modelling. The book finishes with the exposition of the P Cygni profile, and the world of magnetic field. Robinson has been very clever with this difficult task, the magnetic field, in order to teach the important marks for the amateur. Finally my modest recommendations for those amateurs that would like to start in this field: to read the Tonkin's book "Practical Amateur Spectroscopy", and the course of Aude Peltier "Initiation a la spectographie" (tutorial of astrosurf.com). Dr. Barneo

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