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Astronomy
Astronomy is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of one- or two-semester introductory astronomy courses. The book begins with relevant scientific fundamentals and progresses through an exploration of the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. The Astronomy textbook builds student understanding through the use of relevant analogies, clear and non-technical explanations, and rich illustrations. Mathematics is included in a flexible manner to meet the needs of individual instructors.
1188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 21, 2017
1526 people are currently reading
537 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Fraknoi
51 books6 followersAndrew Fraknoi teaches non-technical astronomy and physics courses for adults at the University of San Francisco's Fromm Institute and San Francisco State University's OLLI Program. He retired in 2017 as the Emeritus Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, where he taught courses introducing astronomy and physics to non-science majors for 25 years. In 2007, he was named California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Fraknoi also serves as a senior educational consultant for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Before coming to Foothill in 1992, he served as the Society's Executive Director for 14 years and was the editor of its popular-level astronomy magazine, Mercury.
Fraknoi is author or coauthor of 15 books on astronomy and astronomy education, including The Planets and The Universe, two collections of astronomy and science fiction published by Bantam Books. He is the lead author of "Astronomy," a free, open-source, college-level textbook published by the non-profit OpenStax project at Rice University, which is now the most frequently used astronomy textbook in the U.S. See: http://openstax.org/details/astronomy
In the last few years, he has begun writing science fiction stories based on good astronomy. Seven of his stories have been published so far; see: https://www.fraknoi.com/science-ficti...
At the K-12 level, he has edited two collections of astronomy teaching resources, called "The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0" (available through the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) and "Solar Science" (available from the National Science Teachers Association.) His first astronomy book for children, Wonderful World of Space, was published by Disney in 2007. In 2017, he and Dennis Schatz wrote another children's book "When the Sun Goes Dark" on eclipses.
Fraknoi has written many dozens of articles and resource guides for those learning or teaching astronomy. See his website: http://www.fraknoi.com
Radio listeners know him as a regular guest on local and national radio programs, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. In Northern California, he was an ongoing guest on both the The Gil Gross Show on KGO and Michael Krasny's Forum Program on KQED. He was the “astronomer-in-residence” for the Mark and Brian Morning Show, syndicated out of Los Angeles. Nationally, he has been heard on Science Friday & Weekend All Things Considered on National Public Radio. His TV appearances include The Today Show, CBS Morning News, & Larry King Live.
Fraknoi is a popular lecturer around the country, and has given over 450 public talks on topics ranging from “Why Falling into a Black Hole is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience” to “Are There Real-Estate Agents on Other Worlds?”
Fraknoi serves on the Board of Trustees of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, a scientific and educational organization dedicated to the quest for life among the stars. He is also a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, specializing in debunking astrology.
Fraknoi has a strong interest in helping to improve the way science is taught in the nations' schools. For 20 summers he organized and led the national "Universe in the Classroom" workshops on teaching astronomy in grades 3-12. He also moderates the "Cosmos in the Classroom" symposia, held every three years, on teaching introductory astronomy at the college level. He was the founder and director of Project ASTRO (a program to bring volunteer astronomers into 4th through 9th grade classrooms on an ongoing basis) that now operates in 13 regional sites around the country. A branch of this project, called Family ASTRO, has developed games, activities, and workshops to help families do astronomy together.
Fraknoi was educated at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, and has taught astronomy and physics at San Francisco State University,
Fraknoi also serves as a senior educational consultant for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Before coming to Foothill in 1992, he served as the Society's Executive Director for 14 years and was the editor of its popular-level astronomy magazine, Mercury.
Fraknoi is author or coauthor of 15 books on astronomy and astronomy education, including The Planets and The Universe, two collections of astronomy and science fiction published by Bantam Books. He is the lead author of "Astronomy," a free, open-source, college-level textbook published by the non-profit OpenStax project at Rice University, which is now the most frequently used astronomy textbook in the U.S. See: http://openstax.org/details/astronomy
In the last few years, he has begun writing science fiction stories based on good astronomy. Seven of his stories have been published so far; see: https://www.fraknoi.com/science-ficti...
At the K-12 level, he has edited two collections of astronomy teaching resources, called "The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0" (available through the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) and "Solar Science" (available from the National Science Teachers Association.) His first astronomy book for children, Wonderful World of Space, was published by Disney in 2007. In 2017, he and Dennis Schatz wrote another children's book "When the Sun Goes Dark" on eclipses.
Fraknoi has written many dozens of articles and resource guides for those learning or teaching astronomy. See his website: http://www.fraknoi.com
Radio listeners know him as a regular guest on local and national radio programs, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. In Northern California, he was an ongoing guest on both the The Gil Gross Show on KGO and Michael Krasny's Forum Program on KQED. He was the “astronomer-in-residence” for the Mark and Brian Morning Show, syndicated out of Los Angeles. Nationally, he has been heard on Science Friday & Weekend All Things Considered on National Public Radio. His TV appearances include The Today Show, CBS Morning News, & Larry King Live.
Fraknoi is a popular lecturer around the country, and has given over 450 public talks on topics ranging from “Why Falling into a Black Hole is a Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience” to “Are There Real-Estate Agents on Other Worlds?”
Fraknoi serves on the Board of Trustees of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, a scientific and educational organization dedicated to the quest for life among the stars. He is also a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, specializing in debunking astrology.
Fraknoi has a strong interest in helping to improve the way science is taught in the nations' schools. For 20 summers he organized and led the national "Universe in the Classroom" workshops on teaching astronomy in grades 3-12. He also moderates the "Cosmos in the Classroom" symposia, held every three years, on teaching introductory astronomy at the college level. He was the founder and director of Project ASTRO (a program to bring volunteer astronomers into 4th through 9th grade classrooms on an ongoing basis) that now operates in 13 regional sites around the country. A branch of this project, called Family ASTRO, has developed games, activities, and workshops to help families do astronomy together.
Fraknoi was educated at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, and has taught astronomy and physics at San Francisco State University,
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 4, 2020
An introductory book in Astronomy full of absolutely fascinating science which has been simplified for those who, like me, are just getting their toes wet in this field.
What I liked about this book:
1. It was full of interesting facts.
2. The figures and illustrations.
3. The authors made an effort to simplify the writing and make it entertaining.
What needs to be improved:
1. The quality of the writing is uneven. It seems that from chapter 21 on they didn't bother to do as extended an editing as in the first twenty chapters, and from then on the book positively drags, respeats itself unnecessarily, and many of those later chapters could have been condensed into no more than five and still give the same content.
2. It seems that the authors wanted to simplify the math so much that some of their examples don't make any sense and they don't show a systematic method to go about solving them. For me this was not a big deal because I am reading the book for enjoyment and informational purposes only, but I can see how that would cause problems for a student that is using the book for her course work.
In summary, although I liked this book very much in terms of content, I think that it could be improved as a text book.
What I liked about this book:
1. It was full of interesting facts.
2. The figures and illustrations.
3. The authors made an effort to simplify the writing and make it entertaining.
What needs to be improved:
1. The quality of the writing is uneven. It seems that from chapter 21 on they didn't bother to do as extended an editing as in the first twenty chapters, and from then on the book positively drags, respeats itself unnecessarily, and many of those later chapters could have been condensed into no more than five and still give the same content.
2. It seems that the authors wanted to simplify the math so much that some of their examples don't make any sense and they don't show a systematic method to go about solving them. For me this was not a big deal because I am reading the book for enjoyment and informational purposes only, but I can see how that would cause problems for a student that is using the book for her course work.
In summary, although I liked this book very much in terms of content, I think that it could be improved as a text book.
December 9, 2020
Honestly not bad for a textbook, especially one that offers a free(!!!) digital version. The authors work hard to engage students with quirky anecdotes, which made things slightly more interesting but also increased the difficulty of using this as just a reference for the facts.
October 21, 2021
excellent introductory texts, very comprehensive
December 17, 2018
I don’t normally give reviews, but I felt obligated to make one for this book.
Obviously, I read this as a textbook. And if I could give it zero stars, I would. It is, by far, the worst textbook I've ever laid eyes on. If this is required text for your astronomy class, strongly urge the science department head to reconsider requiring this book and to find a better one. And I suggest, if it is required and without supplemental information/text, to find a different book altogether to do the bulk of your learning from. I managed to get a B in my astronomy class, no thanks to this book, as I used other resources and my lab instructor (as my lecture instructor was nearly as bad as the book).
The Pros:
-The book is free if you use the digital/online versions.
-If you want the hard bound book, it costs less than $60.
-It’s in full color with loads of fantastic pictures.
-The digital/versions have links within the text so you can go directly to the spot the authors are linking to.
The Cons:
-The book (better called a tome) weighs nearly 6 pounds and is almost 1200 pages long – which does not play well with a full course load fitting into your backpack. This could easily be cut by two thirds by removing all of the long-winded, circuitous, and redundant sections.
-The print was far too small (on both the hard copy and the online).
-The hard copy’s pages are printed on paper that creates a glare no matter the lighting type, angle, or brightness.
-There were so many grammatical and syntaxical errors I thought, at times, I was reading a collection of I Can Has Cheezburger cat memes.
-The authors tried very hard to be funny, which I can appreciate, but they failed epically 9 times out of 10. The jokes were so non-sequitur and nebulous (no pun intended) that I ended up needing to re-read the section to pick out the material I was supposed to be learning from the crap taking up space on the page.
-The authors proclaimed the difficulty to comprehend concepts so frequently it almost seemed like they were whining about how difficult it is to be an astronomer (much like how a complacent or jaded office worker complains about how dull and unfulfilling their job is).
In summation:
-The price tag is right, but does a student NO good if they end up needing to re-take the class because of bad writing and bad teaching.
Obviously, I read this as a textbook. And if I could give it zero stars, I would. It is, by far, the worst textbook I've ever laid eyes on. If this is required text for your astronomy class, strongly urge the science department head to reconsider requiring this book and to find a better one. And I suggest, if it is required and without supplemental information/text, to find a different book altogether to do the bulk of your learning from. I managed to get a B in my astronomy class, no thanks to this book, as I used other resources and my lab instructor (as my lecture instructor was nearly as bad as the book).
The Pros:
-The book is free if you use the digital/online versions.
-If you want the hard bound book, it costs less than $60.
-It’s in full color with loads of fantastic pictures.
-The digital/versions have links within the text so you can go directly to the spot the authors are linking to.
The Cons:
-The book (better called a tome) weighs nearly 6 pounds and is almost 1200 pages long – which does not play well with a full course load fitting into your backpack. This could easily be cut by two thirds by removing all of the long-winded, circuitous, and redundant sections.
-The print was far too small (on both the hard copy and the online).
-The hard copy’s pages are printed on paper that creates a glare no matter the lighting type, angle, or brightness.
-There were so many grammatical and syntaxical errors I thought, at times, I was reading a collection of I Can Has Cheezburger cat memes.
-The authors tried very hard to be funny, which I can appreciate, but they failed epically 9 times out of 10. The jokes were so non-sequitur and nebulous (no pun intended) that I ended up needing to re-read the section to pick out the material I was supposed to be learning from the crap taking up space on the page.
-The authors proclaimed the difficulty to comprehend concepts so frequently it almost seemed like they were whining about how difficult it is to be an astronomer (much like how a complacent or jaded office worker complains about how dull and unfulfilling their job is).
In summation:
-The price tag is right, but does a student NO good if they end up needing to re-take the class because of bad writing and bad teaching.
January 29, 2019
Really amazingly written for people who are not science majors. I took a physical science course that focused on the planets, and the questions, as well as the explanations, were very easy to understand and work through. I worried about not being able to get through the book because it was likely to be dense, but as someone who is incredibly busy (full-time student, part-time work, and taking care of my family, plants, pets, etc), it worked out great!
March 10, 2022
Wonderfully concise introduction to core topics of astronomy. Plus it had all sorts of unexpectedly funny parts — seriously, some of these chapters were actually hilarious: "A white dwarf star might make impressive engagement present you could ever see, although any attempt to mine the diamond-like material inside would crush an ardent lover instantly!" (23.1). 100% would refer back to this text if I needed to understand basic ideas of how galaxies, black holes, stars, etc work.
August 28, 2021
One of the best textbooks I've ever seen, on any subject, and that's before you take into account that it's FREE! (Digital download is, anyway. I also rented a hardback copy from Amazon for like 30 bucks. If I had to do it again, I'd be willing to pay substantially more -- it's that good!) For my intro Astronomy course.
August 6, 2020
A bit too heavy at times, and way too much extra material that is exciting but definitely can't be done in a single day or such. Got some really nice visuals and challenging quantitative problems, definitely would recommend as a free astronomy textbook available on the internet.
April 26, 2022
A very good general survey of the basic areas of astronomy. Worked well for the introductory courses I took this year with lots of detail on every topic studied and more depth than offered in lectures.
May 3, 2022
This book is such an awesome free resource. It's best for someone who is unfamiliar with astronomy, but if you already know a lot you can simply go to the sections you are interested in. I went from learning that the moon doesn't rise every night to understanding the basics of black holes.
September 21, 2018
Only reason I'd give it any less is because I was graded on the material. Otherwise a really great reference for the basics.
March 9, 2020
Nice basic introduction
Read
December 5, 2020textbook for class. finally finished with the semester!!!! :D
April 14, 2021
Great book
Excellent, overall coverage of the field of Astronomy. None better in terms of total coverage. Recommend you read this book
Excellent, overall coverage of the field of Astronomy. None better in terms of total coverage. Recommend you read this book
Read
February 7, 20224½ Stars
A nearly perfect work of science.
A nearly perfect work of science.
October 17, 2024
I can recommend this voluminous textbook (1188 pages!) wholeheartedly. The book includes fantastic high-quality pictures and is written in a very understandable language. You don't need special knowledge to enjoy this book.
Each of the 30 chapters starts with an overview and a motivation why the subject of this chapter is important for real life. Each section of a chapter outlines the learning outcomes. The book has many links to engaging additional material (simulations, interactive websites, animations and microworlds).
All chapters end with a review of the most important key terms, a summary and with references for further explorations (links to books, articles, websites, and videos). As a textbook which can be used as teaching material, it includes also activities for collaborative group work and exercises (review questions, thought questions and problems to solve).
The best of it: The book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 and the Kindle book edition is free of charge! You will get other free editions (ePub, PDF) with additional material on the OpenStax-Website of the Rice-University.
Each of the 30 chapters starts with an overview and a motivation why the subject of this chapter is important for real life. Each section of a chapter outlines the learning outcomes. The book has many links to engaging additional material (simulations, interactive websites, animations and microworlds).
All chapters end with a review of the most important key terms, a summary and with references for further explorations (links to books, articles, websites, and videos). As a textbook which can be used as teaching material, it includes also activities for collaborative group work and exercises (review questions, thought questions and problems to solve).
The best of it: The book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 and the Kindle book edition is free of charge! You will get other free editions (ePub, PDF) with additional material on the OpenStax-Website of the Rice-University.
May 15, 2022
Had to read for a course but very informative and made all the challenging concepts easy to grasp.
September 9, 2019
Very nice survey course. Worked for me as a review of coursework completed in the late 70s. Updated some topics and presented some more current content.
Kindle version was free
Kindle version was free
May 29, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews