About This Textbook
Astronomy is written in clear non-technical language, with the occasional touch of humor and a wide range of clarifying illustrations. It has many analogies drawn from everyday life to help non-science majors appreciate, on their own terms, what our modern exploration of the universe is revealing. Astronomy was written, updated, and reviewed by a broad range of astronomers and astronomy educators in a strong community effort.
Astronomy has information and images from the New Horizons exploration of Pluto, the discovery of gravitational waves, the Rosetta Mission to Comet C-G, and many other recent projects in astronomy.
The discussion of exoplanets has been updated with recent information—indicating not just individual examples, but trends in what sorts of planets seem to be most common. Black holes receive their own chapter, and the role of supermassive black holes in active galaxies and galaxy evolution is clearly explained. It is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements of introductory astronomy courses nationwide. Because there are many different ways to teach introductory astronomy, we have made the text as flexible as we could.
Math examples are shown in separate sections throughout, so that you can leave out the math or require it as you deem best. Each section of a chapter treats a different aspect of the topic being covered; a number of sections could be omitted in shorter overview courses and can be included where you need more depth.
This book is written to help students understand the big picture rather than get lost in random factoids to memorize. The language is accessible and inviting. Helpful diagrams and summary tables review and encapsulate the ideas being covered. Each chapter contains interactive group activities you can assign to help students work in teams and pool their knowledge.
Author
A. Fraknoi, David Morrison, Sidney Wolff
Publisher
OpenStax
Publish Date
2016
Level
Undergraduate
License
What’s In This Book
License
This resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Field Expert Reviews
Textbooks are reviewed by subject matter experts in addition to our quality assurance process. Reviewers are paid an honourarium to provide their honest feedback on the material.
Dean and Professor
Erik Jensen, University of Northern British Columbia
I have taught first year astronomy courses for 20 years now, and had adopted the Chaisson and Macmillan "Astronomy Today" textbook from its first edition until having made the transition to the Astronomy OpenStax textbook now. The textbook is not as po„
Senior Instructor, Department of Physics
James Brewer, British Columbia Institute of Technology
Yes, I recommend this book. I shall be using it starting fall 2018 for the astronomy courses I teach at BCIT. The problem I currently face is that the courses I teach are electives, and students are loath to spend $200 on a paperback astronomy text, and so many„