Pathways to Astronomy

"Pathways to Astronomy" is designed more like a series of mini-lectures instead of a monograph of the entire field of astronomy. The same material covered in other introductory astronomy texts is included, but this is broken up into smaller self-contained units. These units are woven together to flow naturally for the person who wants to read the text like a book, but it is also possible to assign them in different orders, or skip certain units altogether. Professors can customize the units to fit their course needs. They can select individual units for exploration in lecture while assigning easier units for self-study, or they can cover all the units in full depth in a content-rich course. With the short length of units, students can easily digest the material covered in an individual unit before moving onto the next unit. "Pathways to Astronomy" offers the most complete technology media support package available. That technology media package includes: Starry Night Planetarium Software free with the purchase of every new text; ARIS (text web site providing a complete online tutorial, electronic homework, and course management system); 23 Interactives (on the text web site and Digital Content Manager CD); and, animations (on the text web site). Electronic Media Integration has been incorporated throughout the text by the use of icons to indicate where additional understanding can be gained through an animation or interactive.

Table of Contents:
THE COSMIC LANDSCAPE 1 Our Planetary Neighborhood 2 Beyond the Solar System 3 Astronomical Numbers 4 Foundations of Astronomy 5 The Night Sky 6 The Year 7 The Time of Day 8 Lunar Cycles 9 Calendars 10 Geometry of the Earth, Sun and Moon 11 Planets: The Wandering Stars 12 The Beginnings of Modern Astronomy 13 Observing the Sky PROBING MATTER,LIGHT, AND THEIR INTERACTION 14 Astronomical Motion: Inertis, Mass, and Force 15 Force, Accerleration, and Interaction 16 The Universal Law of Gravity 17 Measuring a Body's Mass Using Orbital Motion 18 Orbital and Escape Velocity 19 Tides 20 Conservation Laws 21 Light, Matter, and Energy 22 The Electromagnetic Spectrum 23 Thermal Radiation 24 Atomic Spectra: Identifying Atoms by Their Light 25 The Doppler Shift 26 Detecting Light 27 Collecting Light 28 Focusing Light 29 Telescope Resolution 30 The Earth's Atmosphere and Space Observatories 31 Amateur Astonomy THE SOLAR SYSTEM 32 The Structure of the Solar System 33 The Origin of the Solar System 34 Other Planetary Systems 35 The Earth as a Terrestrial Planet 36 Earth's Atmosphere and Hydrosphere 37 Our Moon 38 Mercury 39 Venus 40 Mars 41 Asteroids 42 Comparative Planetology 43 Jupiter and Saturn 44 Uranus and Neptune 45 Satellite Systems and Rings 46 Ice Worlds: Pluto, and Beyond 47 Comets 48 Impacts on Earth STARS AND STELLAR EVOLUTION 49 The Sun, Our Star 50 The Sun's Source of Power 51 Solar Activity 52 Surveying the Stars 53 Special Relativity 54 Light and Distance 55 The Composition and Temperatures of Stars 56 The Masses of Orbiting Stars 57 The Sizes of Stars 58 The H-R Diagram 59 Stellar Evolution 60 Star Formation 61 Main-Sequence Stars 62 Giant Stars 63 Variable Stars 64 Mass Loss and Death of Low Mass Stars 65 Exploding White Dwarfs 66 Old Age and Death of Massive Stars 67 Neutron Stars 68 Black Holes 69 Star Clusters GALAXIES AND THE UNIVERSE 70 Discovering the Milky Way 71 Stars of the Milky Way 72 Gas and Dust in the Milky Way 73 Mass and Motions in the Milky Way 74 A Universe of Galaxies 75 Types of Galaxies 76 Galaxy Clustering 77 Active Galaxies 78 Dark Matter 79 Cosmology 80 The Edges of the Universe 81 The Beginnings of the Universe 82 The Fate of the Universe 83 Astrobiology 84 The Search for Life Elsewhere

About the Author :
Tom Arny is an Emeritus professor in the Astronomy Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was associated there with the Five College Astronomy Program(comprising faculty from U-Mass, Amhurst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges). Dr. Arny received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona. In addition to his interest in astronomy, he has a long-standing fascination with the natural world: weather (especially atmospheric optics such as rainbows), birds, wildflowers, and butterflies. Visit Dr. Arny's website at: http://www.astro.umass.edu/~arny/astro100.html