Peripatus Home Page  pix1Black.gif (807 bytes)  Books >> Astronomy and Astrophysics >> Introduction to Modern Astrophysics Updated: 23 Jan 2002  

Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (Bradley W. Carroll & Dale A. Ostlie, 1996)

Check Amazon.co.uk for this book.

ISBN 0-201-54730-9

An excellent introduction to the whole field: everything from Kepler’s laws, through spectra, special relativity, stellar evolution, binary systems to galactic evolution and a brief introduction to cosmology.  The book is structured into four sections, namely:

Within each section are a number of chapters, each of which is a series of effective tutorials, typically building one upon the other.  For example, Chapter 13, Post-Main-Sequence Stellar Evolution comprises Evolution on the Main Sequence, Late Stages of Stellar Evolution, The Fate of Massive Stars, and Stellar Clusters.

I purchased this book near the beginning of a vacation to Britain, and so absorbing did I find it, that I missed a good part of the countryside I had come to see, and aroused the considerable ire of my better half.  (Eventually, in Dublin, we agreed that Carroll & Ostlie would have to be consigned to a cardboard box and posted home.)

Recommendation:  Well written and accessible to anyone with a modest grip on calculus. Most highly recommended.

Look and Feel:  A huge (1400-odd pages) hardback textbook.  Good paper with excellent diagrams and b&w photographs.  No flashy colour plates, though; this is not one for your coffee table.

 Peripatus Home Page  pix1Black.gif (807 bytes)  Books >> Astronomy and Astrophysics >> Introduction to Modern Astrophysics Contact me.