دانلود کتاب Astronomy For Dummies

فهرست مطالب :

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Getting Started with Astronomy
Chapter 1 Seeing the Light: The Art and Science of Astronomy
Astronomy: The Science of Observation
What You See: The Language of Light
They wondered as they wandered: Understanding planets versus stars
If you see a Great Bear, start worrying: Naming stars and constellations
The smaller, the brighter: Getting to the root of magnitudes
What do I spy? Spotting the Messier Catalog and other sky objects
Looking back on light-years
Keep on moving: Figuring the positions of the stars
Gravity: A Force to Be Reckoned With
Space: A Commotion of Motion
Chapter 2 Join the Crowd: Skywatching Activities and Resources
You’re Not Alone: Astronomy Clubs, Websites, Smartphone Apps, and More
Joining an astronomy club for star-studded company
Checking websites, magazines, software, and apps
Traveling through cyberspace
Perusing publications
Surveying software and apps
Visiting Observatories and Planetariums
Ogling the observatories
Popping in on planetariums
Vacationing with the Stars: Star Parties, Eclipse Trips, Dark Sky Parks, and More
Party on! Attending star parties
Getting festive at an astro fest
Tapping into Astronomy on Tap
To the path of totality: Taking eclipse cruises and tours
Recognizing reasons to book a tour
Examining the advantages of cruising
Intercepting eclipses in the air
Making the right decision
Motoring to telescope motels
Chapter 3 Terrific Tools for Observing the Skies
Seeing Stars: A Sky Geography Primer
As Earth turns . . .
. . . keep an eye on the North Star
Beginning with Naked-Eye Observations
Using Binoculars or a Telescope for a Better View
Binoculars: Sweeping the night sky
Prisms, glass, and shapes
Deciphering the numbers on binoculars
Making sure your binoculars are right for you
Telescopes: When closeness counts
Focusing on telescope classifications
Examining telescope mounts
Shopping for telescopes the smart (and economical) way
Planning Your First Steps into Astronomy
Chapter 4 Just Passing Through: Meteors, Comets, and Artificial Satellites
Meteors: Wishing on a Shooting Star
Spotting sporadic meteors, fireballs, and bolides
Watching meteor showers: No umbrella needed
Comets: Dirty Ice Balls or Icy Dirt Balls?
Making heads and tails of a comet’s structure
The nucleus
The coma
A tale of two tails
Waiting for the “comets of the century”
Hunting for the next great comet
Locating comets the easy way
Locating comets the systematic way
Reporting a comet
Artificial Satellites: Enduring a Love–Hate Relationship
Skywatching for artificial satellites
Finding satellite viewing predictions
UFOs: Could some be aliens?
Part 2 Going Once Around the Solar System
Chapter 5 A Matched Pair: Earth and Its Moon
Putting Earth under the Astronomical Microscope
One of a kind: Earth’s unique characteristics
Spheres of influence: Earth’s distinct regions
Examining Earth’s Time, Seasons, and Age
Orbiting for all time
Knowing how time flies
Looking out for leap seconds
Finding the right time
Tilting toward the seasons
Estimating Earth’s age
Making Sense of the Moon
Get ready to howl: Identifying phases of the Moon
In the shadows: Watching lunar eclipses
Cultivating an interest in the occult(ations)
Hard rock: Surveying lunar geology
Moon ice? That’s nice
Observing the near side
Taking a shine to earthshine
Joining the dark side
Roving and scanning the Moon for science
Quite an impact: Considering a theory about the Moon’s origin
Chapter 6 Earth’s Near Neighbors: Mercury, Venus, and Mars
Mercury: Weird, Hot, and Mostly Metal
Dry, Acidic, and Hilly: Piercing the Veil of Venus
Dropping the ball: Probing Venus with DAVINCI+ and EnVision
Something in the air: Life in Venus’s clouds?
Red, Cold, and Barren: Uncovering the Mysteries of Mars
Where have almost all the air and water gone? (Long time passing)
Does Mars support life?
Claims about life strike out
The search for fossil evidence
Differentiating Earth through Comparative Planetology
Observing the Terrestrial Planets with Ease
Understanding elongation, opposition, and conjunction
Viewing Venus and its phases
Watching Mars as it loops around
Outdoing Copernicus by observing Mercury
Be an early riser for Mercury
Don’t expect to see surface markings
Chapter 7 Rock On: The Asteroid Belt and Near-Earth Objects
Taking a Brief Tour of the Asteroid Belt
Getting the Dirt on (and off) Asteroids
Understanding the Threat That Near-Earth Objects Pose
When push comes to shove: Nudging an asteroid
Forewarned is forearmed: Surveying NEAs to protect Earth
Searching for Small Points of Light
Helping to track an occultation
Timing an asteroidal occultation
Chapter 8 Great Balls of Gas: Jupiter and Saturn
The Pressure’s On: Journeying Inside Jupiter and Saturn
Almost a Star: Gazing at Jupiter
Scanning for the Great Red Spot
Shooting for Galileo’s moons
Recognizing moon movements
Timing your moon gaze
Our Main Planetary Attraction: Setting Your Sights on Saturn
Ringing around the planet
Storm chasing across Saturn
Monitoring a moon of major proportions
Venting about geysers on Enceladus
Chapter 9 Far Out! Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Beyond
Breaking the Ice with Uranus and Neptune
Bull’s-eye! Tilted Uranus and its features
Against the grain: Neptune and its biggest moon
Meeting Pluto, the Amazing Dwarf Planet
Defining Pluto the geophysical way
Getting to the heart of Pluto
Counting craters
Examining Sputnik Planitia
Looking at Pluto’s makeup
The moon chip doesn’t float far from the planet
Buckling Down to the Kuiper Belt
Viewing the Outer Planets
Sighting Uranus
Distinguishing Neptune from a star
Straining to see Pluto
Hunting New Planet Number Nine
Part 3 Starting with Old Sol: Meeting Stars and Galaxies
Chapter 10 The Sun: Star of Earth
Surveying the Sunscape
The Sun’s size and shape: A great bundle of gas
The Sun’s regions: Caught between the core and the corona
Solar activity: What’s going on out there?
Coronal mass ejections: The mother of solar outbursts
Cycles within cycles: The Sun and its spots
The solar “constant”: Time to face the changes
Solar wind: Playing with magnets
Solar CSI: The mystery of the missing solar neutrinos
Four billion and counting: The life expectancy of the Sun
Don’t Make a Blinding Mistake: Safe Techniques for Solar Viewing
Viewing the Sun by projection
Using the projection technique with a telescope
Making a pinhole camera to project the Sun
Viewing the Sun through front-end filters
Fun with the Sun: Solar Observation
Tracking sunspots
Figuring your personal sunspot number
Finding official sunspot numbers
Experiencing solar eclipses
Observing an eclipse safely
Seeking shadow bands, Baily’s Beads, and the diamond ring
Following the path of totality
Surfing solar observatories
Chapter 11 Taking a Trip to the Stars
Life Cycles of the Hot and Massive
Young stellar objects: Taking baby steps
Main sequence stars: Enjoying a long adulthood
Red giants and supergiants: Big and bigger
Closing time: Coming up on the tail end of stellar evolution
Central stars of planetary nebulas
White dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron stars
Black holes
Star Color, Brightness, and Mass
Spectral types: What color is my star?
Star light, star bright: Luminosity classifications
The brighter they burn, the bigger they swell: Mass determines class
Making sense of the H-R diagram
Eternal Partners: Binary and Multiple Stars
Binary stars and the Doppler effect
Two stars are binary, but three’s a crowd: Multiple stars
Change Is Good: Variable Stars
Go the distance: Pulsating stars
Cepheid variable stars
RR Lyrae stars
Long period variable stars
Explosive neighbors: Flare stars
Nice to nova: Exploding stars
Novas
Luminous red novas
Supernovas
Stellar hide-and-seek: Eclipsing binary stars
Hog the starlight: Microlensing events
Your Stellar Neighbors
How to Help Scientists by Observing the Stars
Chapter 12 Galaxies: The Milky Way and Beyond
Unwrapping the Milky Way
How and when did the Milky Way form?
What shape is the Milky Way?
Where can you find the Milky Way?
Star Clusters: Meeting Galactic Associates
A loose fit: Open clusters
A tight squeeze: Globular clusters
Fun while it lasted: OB associations
Taking a Shine to Nebulas
Picking out planetary nebulas
Breezing through supernova remnants
Enjoying Earth’s best nebular views
Getting a Grip on Galaxies
Surveying spiral, barred spiral, and lenticular galaxies
Examining elliptical galaxies
Looking at irregular, dwarf, and low surface brightness galaxies
Gawking at great galaxies
Discovering the Local Group of galaxies
Checking out clusters of galaxies
Sizing up superclusters, cosmic voids, and great walls
Chapter 13 Falling for Black Holes and Quasars
Black Holes: Keeping Your Distance
Looking over the black hole roster
Poking around the black hole interior
The photon ring
The event horizon
The singularity
Surveying a black hole’s surroundings
Warping space and time
Detecting black hole collisions
Watching stars get swallowed by black holes
Quasars: Defying Definitions
Measuring the size of a quasar
Getting up to speed on jets
Exploring quasar spectra
Active Galactic Nuclei: Welcome to the Quasar Family
Sifting through different types of AGN
Examining the power behind AGN
Questioning what ORCs are
Part 4 Pondering the Remarkable Universe
Chapter 14 Planets of Other Suns: Is Anybody Out There?
Discovering Alien Worlds
Changing ideas on exoplanets
Finding exoplanets
Meeting the (exo)planets
Catching Proxima fever: Focusing on red dwarfs
Finding Earth-class planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1
Checking out planets for fun and science
Astrobiology: How’s Life on Other Worlds?
Extremophiles: Living the hard way
Seeking life in the solar system
The ongoing search for Martians
Venus: Does life hang by a thread?
Europa, we hardly know thee
Titan: Perhaps a primeval Earth
The Enceladus plume
You can keep up with astrobiology
Using Drake’s Equation to Discuss SETI
SETI Projects: Listening for E.T.
The flight of Project Phoenix
Space scanning with other SETI projects
Hot targets for SETI
SETI@home
Chapter 15 Delving into Dark Matter and Antimatter
Dark Matter: Understanding the Universal Glue
Gathering the evidence for dark matter
Dark matter makes stars orbit oddly
Dark matter traps gas in galaxy clusters
Dark matter causes gravitational lensing
Cold dark matter makes the universe take its lumps
Dark matter is critical to the universal density
Debating the makeup of dark matter
Baryonic dark matter: MACHO lumps in space
Oddball dark matter: Stranger still
Taking a Shot in the Dark: Searching for Dark Matter
Looking for WIMPs and other microscopic dark matter
MACHOs: Making a brighter image
Mapping dark matter with gravitational lensing
Celebrating Dark Matter Day
Dueling Antimatter: Proving That Opposites Attract
Chapter 16 The Big Bang and the Evolution of the Universe
Evidence for the Big Bang
Inflation: A Swell Time in the Universe
Something from nothing: Inflation and the vacuum
Falling flat: Inflation and the shape of the universe
Dark Energy: The Universal Accelerator
Universal Info Pulled from the Cosmic Microwave Background
Finding the lumps in the cosmic microwave background
Mapping the universe with the cosmic microwave background
In a Galaxy Far Away: Standard Candles and the Hubble Constant
Standard candles: How do scientists measure galaxy distances?
The Hubble constant: How fast do galaxies really move?
The Fate of the Universe
Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 17 Ten Strange Facts about Astronomy and Space
You Have Tiny Meteorites in Your Hair
A Comet’s Tail Often Leads the Way
Earth Is Made of Rare and Unusual Matter
High Tide Comes on Both Sides of Earth at the Same Time
On Venus, the Rain Never Falls on the Plain
Rocks from Mars Dot Earth
Pluto Was Discovered from the Predictions of a Wrong Theory
Sunspots Aren’t Dark
A Star in Plain View May Have Exploded, But No One Knows
The Same Supernova or Quasar May Be Seen in Different Places
Chapter 18 Ten Common Errors about Astronomy and Space
“The Light from That Star Took 1,000 Light-Years to Reach Earth”
There’s No Gravity in Space
Summer Comes When Earth Is Closest to the Sun
The Back of the Moon Is Dark
The “Morning Star” or “Evening Star” Is a Star
The Asteroid Belt Is Crowded
Nuking a “Killer Asteroid” on a Collision Course for Earth Will Save Us
The Sun Is an Average Star
The Hubble Space Telescope Gets Up Close and Personal
The Big Bang Is Dead
Part 6 Appendixes
Appendix A Star Maps
Appendix B Glossary
Index
EULA