Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe

by Eric Chaisson, Steve McMillan

A brief, introductory astronomy book designed for readers with little or no scientific background, A Beginner's Guide uses an exceptionally clear writing style. The authors present a broad view of astronomy without complex mathematics, yet the book discusses important concepts without simplification. The book's organization follows the popular and effective “Earth-Out” progression, starting with our planet and then moving through the solar system. A study of the Sun as a model star follows, then the book covers the Milky Way Galaxy, cosmology, and the universe as a whole. Because of its easy-to-read yet comprehensive coverage of astronomy, this book can serve as excellent reference material for those readers interested in learning about our universe.

Genres: Astronomy, Science, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Space, Physics, Reference

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Sofibrivi]

I owe every good grade in my Astronomy course to this book

[✨faith✨trust✨pixiedust✨ Dead Account; Not Coming Back]

for school

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty interactive and had a good balance of facts, pictures, graphs, and illustrations. I enjoyed learning more about astronomy even though it wasn't my favorite subject. I took an astronomy class as a part of my general education courses in college. It was an interesting class, but nothing I'm going to be obsessed with anytime soon. The website where we took our quizzes was also pretty cool. If you're a fan of astronomy, I'd recommend this book.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2012...

[Cherish · Rating 5 out of 5]

...a constant read. It blows my mind on a regular basis.

[Harmony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jam packed with information but not in a way that made it easy to learn. I often felt like the authors would see something shiny, go off on a tangent, and never properly explain the concepts. They used different terms for the same thing but switch between them without explaining they are connected. Most of my learning was from comparing what was written in the book with external sources that were better at explaining the concepts.

[Emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book if you are searching for some „simple”, broad explanations for the astrophysics processes which shape the Universe.
However, sometimes it feels that the topics are based more on predictions rather than facts.

[Huy Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good and well-rounded book about astronomy.

[Tanu Goel Srivastava · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been easier for non science students

[Deanna Sutter]

Winter semester 2021

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent intro college level textbook. Informative and not too boring. Not too much extra fluff, but the material was engaging.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dry and thick reading, but then it is a science book after all! It covers the subject decently well and is reasonably clear. I have the cd/ebook version and I love the production quality of the included movies.

[Jillian Navejas]

I don't know that I'd call this a beginners guide....

[kayla** · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book about astronomy, not bad!

[Yaritza · Rating 5 out of 5]

This text book was very easy to understand. Learned about every aspect of our planets and our universe.

[Linda Hayashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this so very much that I have acquired another similar version for next semester's Astronomy class.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Power read it. Carl Sagan was right. Billions and billions of stars.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending chapter was very interesting, in my opinion. ^_^