Astronomy / Space Suggest me a book

Njos

N
I've read a few already but most of them were kinda informative. Good reads cause they summarized a lot of informations in an appealing and pleasing form but not as scientific as I'd have wanted. Just for the record, I'm talking about a couple of Brian Green ones: The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of The Cosmos which is so thick I'm actually still reading it. Plus lots of articles from Scientific American, to which I've been subscribed the most part of the past 20 years.

Now I was looking at something more scientific about astronomy and cosmology in particular. Stars and planets formation, classifications, evolution of different types of celestials, where carbon based form of life can be "expected" to be found and where not..... all that crazy stuff and in digital format. Something at university level might be cool but they tend to cost too much.
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
If I may point out that different writers have significantly different approaches. It's really down to what you can absorb and what interests you.

I took a serious interest, a few years ago, in the origins and where things are going. More recent editions of those books have been promised for a while now, but not emerged.

For me, I'm back on my Muriel Spark compendium.
 

Kay Ross

Ex-FDEV Render & Stellar Forge
If it's more of a scientific textbook you're after, and you are a friend of maths, I recommend Carroll and Ostlie's An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. It covers most astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology topics that come to mind.
It is, as I say, a textbook though, so heavy on the mathematical derivations and not something with narrative flavour. Also a bit pricey to pick up new, too.
 

Njos

N
Anthony Ross said:
If it's more of a scientific textbook you're after, and you are a friend of maths, I recommend Carroll and Ostlie's An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. It covers most astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology topics that come to mind.
It is, as I say, a textbook though, so heavy on the mathematical derivations and not something with narrative flavour. Also a bit pricey to pick up new, too.
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Yeah definitely 168$ goes way beyond any reasonable interest but you know what happens when I see such ludicrously priced digital objects? I remember about someone else's right to possess a digital copy of his ludicrously priced digital goods and feel like justice has been restored :cool:

The book looks very interesting although the problem is epub/djvu don't look like very well suited for formulas. A pdf may be way better, just saying.....
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edd

edd
The step below Carroll and Ostlie is probably 'Universe' by Freedman and Kaufmann. I think it has an electronic version as well, which may work out cheaper.

Definitely check the second hand market - a lot of undergrads will sell on their textbooks and the summer is a good time to go looking.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
My I suggest you look through the list on Amazon?

Asuming you're in N America: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=astronomy

The problems with many recommendations is they are either over the top technical suggested by those who may be studying the subject or kinda remote suggested by people like me! Look at the list, make sure any book you like has been published within the last 24 months and take a chance.

The worst that will happen is you end up with another interesting title to impress visitors as they walk past your carefully placed book case, with the sex books hidden in the drawer.
 

Njos

N
The problem is that there is such a sheer amount of publications on the subject that you cannot really grasp much of what's inside before purchasing. In a physical bookstore or even library at least you can open it, check the index, see it. The "preview" thingy on amazon or kobostore barely lets you through the index or prologue, sometimes not even there.

But yeah I was asking for the more advanced stuff in order to cut off all those "chit-chat behemoths" like the ones I mentioned in the OP because they are prolly 98% of the whole cake. But at the same time I'm not interested in those really really super specific topics like the physics of superfluid plasma or how benzyl cyanide could be synthesized in the atmosphere of Uranus. And no, I didn't pick up that specific planet by chance :D

Prolly those suggested above are what I was looking for but still.... 160$ for the former, 116$ for the latter..... I'm still open for discussion :)
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
For me, I reject books like Dummies , strange facts, or other gimmics. Also, specultions about aliens and such is an abvious nonsense.

Next I look through those that seem intersting and use the feedback section to see what other have to say. If there is a lot of feedback I check the 5 star and the 1 star. I'm mainly looking for intelegent comments, things like, didn't like the colour or anything petty and I move to the next.

Then I decide which things I'm interested in. As I said earlier, I was especially interested in origins. But you may want a review of some of the recent discoveries.

Now I make copious use of the wish list and add any that look good to that.

Finally, I have a night sleep and next day, make my decision.

But that's just me.
 
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