Astronomy For Dummies by Stephen Maran

Astronomy For Dummies Reviews

• 
  Hridoy Hoque

  One of the best. Almost covers up every basic topic in astronomy nice and smoothly for the beginnings. The writing style isn't gonna make you bore. It's fun to read & quite enjoyable to learn. Besides, this guy really makes thing interesting. And provides necessary stuffs that you must need to know.
  
  Well here is a fact that you might need to know : if you've already read "An idiots guide to astronomy" or "Astronomy: A self teaching Guide" you don't need to read this book. I've started with this one though. These 3 books are a like. You can start with anyone of 'em. And if you do, don't waste your time by reading "Astronomy 101". Look for higher once.
• 
  Emir Duquela

  Este libro es el comienzo de un camino largo por la ciencia que se esconde en los cosmos. Siempre he tenido desde pequeño ese bichito de la astronomia dentro de mi. Soy un fanatico de la fisica cuantica, los astros, la cosmologia, las leyes, las ecuaciones, la ciencia. Me seducen todos esos temas y seguiré indagando mas sobre todos esos temas. Ahora es que la cosa se pone buena. Gracias al destino por poner este libro en mi camino. Se lo recomiendo a todo aquel que desee adquirir una base, pero una base para comenzar a aprender mucho mas.
  
  PD: el libro es Dummie pero por mas que quieran los temas son complejos y hay que sentarse a analizar cada parrafo. Es muy divertido si realmente te gustan las ciencias.
• 
  Ginny Messina

  I’m not a big fan of the Dummies books. Don’t really like the humor which always seems—well, sort of dumb. But, I had picked this up at a yard sale some years ago and found it when I decided I wanted to read a little bit about astronomy. It answered lots of questions and was a good start to learning about this subject.
• 
  نیما اکبرخانی

  یه کتاب دیگه از مجموعه دامیز
  نجوم برای احمق ها
  فکر کنم بهترین ترجمه ای که گیرتون بیاد ترجمه حسین شهرابی باشه که البته من اونو نخو��دم
  فکر نمی کنم زیاد نیازی به توضیح داشته باشه اگر به نجوم علاقمند هستین و مثل من هیچی راجع بهش نمی دونین ، کتاب خیلی مناسبی برای شروع هست . که می تونید از طریق اون یک کم اطلاعات اونم از نوع کلی و صرفا تعریفی پیدا کنید .
  اگر علاقه دارید خوبه .
• 
  Anid Harker

  Very educational, but riddled with some extremely corny humor, which may be a pro or a con depending on who you ask I guess.
• 
  Ohita

  A theory book full of dad jokes. Nice.
• 
  Adrian Burlacu

  The book was interesting, provided some information about astronomy, but I was a little disappointed with the large amount of data about star gazing. I'm not really into that sort of thing and it adds a lot of clutter to an otherwise decent book. Also, I don't think that a book should list future eclipses, star map apps or events for amateurs. This kind of information has a short life span and I think most people will find it on the Internet, anyway.
  
  It was funny at times, but I wouldn't call the book "for dummies". I believe some of the concepts could have been explained in a different fashion. All in all, the book is ok. Next time I'll try one on astrophysics, which is what I was interested in the first place.
• 
  Daniel

  My favorite chapters were 2 & 3. I never knew that there were telescope motels. And I never thought about using binoculars to look at stars. I also liked the discussion of astronomy software.
  
  Astronomy for dummies has everything I wanted to know about astronomy for meteoroids, comets, asteroids. The sky has been full of stars, and planets for my whole life yet I have never taken the time to spend time looking at it. I have even had stellarium on my computer for awhile but, never used it. I have wanted to learn astronomy for awhile but, have never done it.
  
  Astronomy for dummies got me excited about astronomy. So hopefully I went star doing some star gazing of my own. I can't wait. I am glad I read astronomy for dummies.
• 
  Negar

  وقتی یه جایی گیر افتادید و توی گوشی مامانتونم هییییییییییییییییییچ کتابی نیست :|
  
  والا فک کنم برای علاقه مند کردن بد نیس یا حتی شروع ساده برای مبتدی ها، ولی اطلاعات خیلی خاصی نمیده. لحن نویسنده م بد نبود :|
• 
  Drew Rumbley

  Really good stuff
  
  This is the expanded basics. Hit a lot of stuff I learned in a year of college physics 45 years ago. The links to more info are worth the price. Helped me figure out what I am really interested in knowing more about. I loved it!!
• 
  Juanjo

  Al terminar de leerlo me preguntaba ¿para dummies? Realmente toca todo lo referente a la astronomía, desde el astro más cercano (la Luna) hasta los límites observables y más allá teorizado.
  El libro está lleno de referencias URL para completar todo tipo de conocimiento, consejos para la observación propia, consejos para adquirir un telescopio y como usarlo, errores comunes ...
  Un libro bastante completo sin profundizar en lo verdaderamente complejo sobre cálculos matemáticos de cosmología y de la naturaleza de la materia a nivel subatómico aunque se menciona todo esto también.
  Lo más flojo de este libro es en el desarrollo de la astronomía a través de la historia como tal, para eso existen otros libros y no es el objetivo a cubrir.
  Otro aspecto por el que no le doy las 5 estrellas es porque especialmente en los últimos capítulos se hace repetitivo o hace referencias a capítulos anteriores, esto tiene a la vez a favor que aquellos que leen sin orden o aquellos que tengan el libro como herramienta de consulta no tengan la sensación de estar perdido aunque abra el libro por el final.
• 
  Argiris Fakkas

  Astronomy for dummies is a nice, introductory book about astronomy, with many information about Earth, moon, our solar system and the cosmos. It's always fascinating to read all these facts about space. Be warned though, this is not an easy and elementary reading. Some of the stuff were too detailed and require a good physics background, especially if you want to grasp almost everything in the book. On a side note, the colorful section is really good, but I would have expected the whole book to be likewise.
  
  The first chapter (Seeing the light: The art and science of astronomy) is a nice start-up chapter with α definition about what astronomy is and information about the 88 official constellations (which aren't the same as asterisms). The second chapter (Join the crowd: Skywatching activities and resources) was extremely indifferent and uninteresting to me, with much detailed information about astronomy clubs, astronomy apps and observatories. The third chapter (The way you watch tonight: Terrific tools for observing the skies) is another bland, technical chapter with information about telescopes and binoculars, but with some interesting facts about the brightness of the stars. The fourth chapter (Just passing through: Meteors, comets, and artificial satellites) is a good and interesting chapter, if you stay to the basics, there are many detailed info about the definitions and the differences between meteors, meteoroids, meteorites, fireballs, bolides etc, that you could get lost in the details.
  
  The fifth chapter (A Matched pair: Earth and its Moon) is about our home planet and its natural satellite. I already knew most of the facts in this chapter, but there are also many others that are not well-known facts. The information about the moon, its dark side, and its craters (there is an interesting effort about sketching and identifying moon craters that everyone can participate) is fascinating. Chapter 6 (Earth's near neighbors: Mercury, Venus, and Mars) is one of the best sections of the book, with facts about the inner planets of our solar system. The facts about Venus' acidic rain that never reaches the ground, Mars water and the possible existence of life there, as well as comparative planetology are breathtaking. The seventh chapter (Rock On: The asteroid belt and near-Earth objects) is about the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres being the biggest, and there is also a part about why the near-Earth object pose a threat to our planet. Chapter 8 (Great balls of gas: Jupiter and Saturn) is possibly the most exciting of the book. The info about Jupiter's great red spot (which is actually a storm), its moons (Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and Io), the rings of Saturn (consisting mainly of ice), the Cassini mission, Saturn's largest moons such as Titan and Enceladus with its water geysers are fascinating. Chapter 9 (Far out! Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and beyond) is another interesting chapter with many info about the light- blue, tilted Uranus, dark-blue Neptune with the Triton moon, and even Pluto, although it has unfortunately demoted as a planet (called dwarf planet now).
  
  The tenth chapter (The sun: Star of Earth) is about our star. There are many facts about the sun (some of them overly detailed), about the layers of the sun (chromosphere, corona, core, radiative zone and convection zone), sunspots, solar flares, solar wind, the life expectancy of our star, the dangers and the precautions you have to take if you watch the sun or a solar eclipse, about strange phenomena during the totality of an eclipse (animals reactions to it, birds roosting and cattle returning to their barn) and some upcoming eclipse dates. Chapter 11 (Taking a trip to the stars) is another excellent chapter. Here we learn about the main sequence of stars, how stars are born, the types of stars (main sequence stars, for example our sun, red giants, white dwarfs, supernovas, neutron stars, black holes) Of course the facts about the black holes are the most interesting. We also learn about spectral types, binary and multiple stars, a phenomenon called the Doppler effect, exploding stars such as novas, supernovas and hypernovas. Chapter 12 (Galaxies: The milky way and beyond) unwraps the milky way mysteries, explains what star clusters and planetary nebulae are, divide galaxies into main types (spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, irregular, dwarf) and lists some great galaxies. Chapter 13 (Digging into black holes and quasars) has many interesting facts about black holes. There are two main types, the stellar mass black holes and the supermassive black holes, located at the centers of galaxies. A black hole has three parts: the event horizon, the singularity and falling objects. There are also facts about quasars which are active galactic nuclei and some of them (10%) emit strong radio waves. The differences between the main types of quasars though are too difficult to understand.
  
  The fourteenth chapter (Is anybody out therer? SETI and planets of other suns) explains the Drake's equation to figure out the number of civilizations in our galaxy, the SETI (search for extraterrestrial life) project with the huge radio telescopes, the types of exoplanets that have been discovered (carbon planet, exo-earth, super-earth, nomad planet, water world, etc) and astrobiology. Chapter 15 (Delving into dark matter and antimatter) is a hard chapter about dark matter and antimatter. Chapter 16 (The big bang and the evolution of the universe) discusses the big bang theory (not the sitcom!), the evidence for it, the inflation of the universe, the dark energy, the Hubble constant and the fate of the universe.
  
  Chapter 17 has ten strange facts about astronomy and space, while Chapter 18 has ten common errors about astronomy and space, two nice additions to end the book.
• 
  Myéline

  I couldn't finish this book , I tried so hard but that's it ,I give up (it also made me get into a long ass reading slump , I'm never forgiving it for this )
  Well , I was expecting something more interesting rather than sky viewing and techniques to spot stars and constellations(which I will never be able to remember of course ) I was expecting more informations about the universe , the galaxies , the planets even , in a funny amusing way .
  It's a meh (I'm giving it two stars just becuz I learned some new stuff although they weren't numerous , but I'm a grateful fella)
• 
  Jan Garner

  Excellent book for sky-star gazers!
  
  I got this book to share facts regarding astronomy with my grandsons that are right into it. Myself, always living astronomy, caught up on new discoveries, missions, & information. Very easy to read format (as are most of the "for Dummies" books). It makes it easy to share this book between adults & kids with an interest. Recommend to anyone or family.
• 
  Richard Millsap

  Solid introduction to various outlined astronomical topics and related segments presented in narrative form. Abundant suggestions--mostly online--to supplementary materials and exploratory possibilities. Plenty of charts, graphs, sketches, drawings, and some nice color pics.
  
  I quite enjoyed my initial reading of this book. It already could benefit from updating but should serve me well enough as an astronomical amateur's basic reference in future.
  
  [Refers to the 4th Edition, 2017.]
• 
  Joanna

  Ein aufschlussreiches und auch für Laien lesenswertes Buch über den Einstieg in die Astronomie. Vom Thema Ausrüstung bis zur Supernova wird hier alles abgedeckt, sodass man gut gerüstet in sein neues Hobby starten kann. Wer die Reihe der Dummies-Bücher kennt, weiss, was ihn/sie erwartet. Ansonsten kann ich diese Bücher wirklich nur empfehlen.
• 
  David Vigo

  Aunque no tengo ninguna duda de que el autor es un gran astrónomo, pienso que no es tan buen "profesor" o no se le da tan bien explicar las cosas.
  
  A este libro le eliminaría el "Para Dummies" pues profundiza demasiado en temas bastante complejos y no se para lo suficiente en las cuestiones que pueden resultar de interés para alguien que pretende aficionarse a la astronomía.
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  Nestor Aguilar

  Ta bien, aprendí unas cuantas cosas y aclaré otras tantas. Pero la mayor parte de los consejos para practicar astronomía no me sirve, ya sea por la posición geográfica en que vivo, o por mi incapacidad para comprar prismáticos/telescopios.
• 
  Dani Ollé

  A lot of very readable and very relevant content for anyone with an interest in the topic
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  Max Karmazin

  Extremely well-written book. It's full of practical knowledge that you can apply the very same day (evening is better). Very funny, interesting and useful book! LOVE IT.
• 
  Esther Rabbit

  Exactly what I needed for my research, easy to follow and quite interesting.
• 
  Rick Vickers

  Excellent beginner book will show where to find all the information you need if the book doesn’t actually provide the information, In most cases the information is provided.
• 
  Emily (frappesandfiction)

  random books I read ep 2!
  I'm still shocked about how much I didn't know about space.
• 
  RJ Wit

  Corny humour that wasn't my thing. Interesting stuff but not something that I wanted. Honestly, I consider this wasted money as I didn't actually learn anything about recognizing the stars.
• 
  Jrene

  Learned so much but still don’t understand a lot. If you’re totally new to this, several pages might be too complicated. At least for me.
• 
  Jaylia3

  Informative, detailed, accessible
  
  Everything you wanted to know about the objects in the night sky is explained with down to Earth simplicity in Astronomy for Dummies. Our moon, the planets and their moons, stars, galaxies, black matter, black holes, and big bangs are all covered. It’s a cornucopia for the curious and it’s not necessary to read the book straight through; you can peruse chapters as they interest you. The book will be especially useful for those who are or want to be amateur astronomers, but it makes great couch reading too.