Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics (Erika Böhm-Vitense)

Volume 1 – Basic Stellar Observations and Data (1989)

     Check Amazon for this book: United States (Amazon.com) / International (Amazon.co.uk)

     ISBN 0-5213-4869-2

Volume 2 – Stellar Atmospheres (1989)

     Check Amazon for this book: United States (Amazon.com) / International (Amazon.co.uk)

     ISBN 0-5213-4870-6

Volume 3 – Stellar Structure and Evolution (1992)

     Check Amazon for this book: United States (Amazon.com) / International (Amazon.co.uk)

     ISBN 0-5213-4871-4

The first volume in the trilogy begins with the basics – coordinate systems, proper motions and the distances of nearby stars – and quickly works up through apparent and absolute magnitudes, colour magnitudes, luminosities, temperatures, masses and radii. The honeymoon has ended already: your high school trig tops out and you’ll be needing to dust off your integral calculus by half way through chapter 4 (‘Radiation Absorption in the Earth’s Atmosphere,’ p. 17). Then there is a review of spectral classification and the stellar zoo.

Volume two revisits colour magnitudes and temperature in more detail before embarking on a long study I believe most amateurs would find fairly esoteric, as I did: radiative transfer, the absortion coefficient, pressure stratification and convection. Towards the end we return to some slightly more familiar ground with chromospheres, coronae and stellar winds, the last including a discussion of the Eddington limit which brings us to an interesting point: It is at once illuminating and frustrating for amateur astonomers to encounter a topic like this. We have read, perhaps, that an idea like the Eddington limit is the focus of some debate, even doubt. Yet even the original, possibly flawed, theory is sufficiently complex that we can barely get to grips with it. We can scarcely criticise Böhm-Vitense for presenting Eddington’s original ideas and omitting any discussions about the Humphreys-Davidson limit or Langer’s thoughts on rotation. Oh, well ....

Volume three, of course, is what we are waiting for: this is where all the sexy stuff is. By chapter nine we are on to the basic equations of stellar structure, followed by main sequence evolutionary models, pulsating stars, and Cepheids. The final chapter deals with star formation.

Recommendation: Well written and accessible to anyone with good calculus. Most highly recommended.

Look and Feel: Three paperbacks (also available in hardback I understand) of around 200 pages or so; good quality paper; crisp diagrams and photographs. A textbook.

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Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics (Erika Böhm-Vitense)

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