Textbook on Spherical Astronomy

by William Marshall Smart, R.M. Green (Editor)

This well-established textbook gives a general but comprehensive introduction to positional astronomy. Originally based on the author's lecture courses at Cambridge University, it is intended primarily for undergraduates, but, due to its comprehensive nature, it is a very useful reference text for research workers in many branches of astronomy and space physics. The author considers the night sky as the celestial sphere and powerfully exploits the methods of spherical geometry. Most problems in which the precise determination of a heavenly body's position in the sky is important are considered in theoretical detail, and the necessary formulae are derived to a precision that is sufficient for all but the most specialist purposes. The present revision has ensured that the terminology and treatment correspond precisely to current astronomical practice. A guiding principle has been to re-establish compatibility with the Astronomical Ephemeris and, to a lesser extent, with the fuller explanations of the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac. Fairly frequent comments added to the text indicate the sometimes modified relevance of the subject matter to modern astronomy. A number of additional exercises help to illustrate the new material.

Genres: Astronomy, Science, Nonfiction, Physics

431 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

Reviews

[Elham Ghafarzadeh]

این کتاب‌رو زمانی که دبیرستانی بودم و داوطلب شرکت در المپیاد نجوم، خوندم. هنوز هم جزو منابع المپیاد محسوب میشه. کتابی که سعی کرده مباحث ریاضی و مکانیک مربوط با نجوم‌رو به صورت کلاسیک بیان کنه.

[Jefferson]

I really love this book (both from a serious and facetious view), and it's among the best-known astronomy textbooks of the 20th century -- a good complement to the "the big orange book". It also looks great on any "smart" bookshelf. Enough said!

[Yumeko (blushes)]

Bye I'm so mad, are all texts on spherical geometry so hard to parse? It's not even difficult mathematically, I just can't imagine this was made for self studying. It probably wasn't, but how great is a book that is impossible to follow without a teacher. My entire experience reading this book is to use other sources to understand the book instead of the book being the main source I learn from, if I only needed a list of contents I could've gotten that from anywhere. Sigh.

[Ayush Vatsa]

Completed this book for my final year exams, overall good, Beginner-Friendly as it builds on existing concepts. However, the book missed few things later chapters were beyond the scope of my syllabus, so i didn't complete it so idek more about it

[Arman]

در قفسه کتابهای چاپی من قرار دارد. وقت نکردم کتاب را بخونم. فکر کنم مطالبش قدیمی شده و منابع به روزتری در بازار موجود باشه

[Pejman Norouzi]

کتاب نجوم‌کروی اسمارت را زمانی که دانش اموز بودم به انگلیسی خواندم. بارها و بارها و البته که بیچاره اش شدم بعدها ترجمه اش را دکتر جسور انجام داد . کتابی است کلاسیک و کاملا اکادمیک یعنی عملا بایستی به همراه راهنما( معلم)خوانده شود و عملا کتاب خوداموز نیست. و در هر حال در نوع و ژانر خود بی رقیب در دنیاست.

[Muhamed Ȝadel]

لغته صعبه جدا