Astronomy by Andrew Fraknoi

Astronomy Reviews

• 
  Roxanna López

  An introductory book in Astronomy full of absolutely fascinating science which has been simplified for those who, like me, are just getting their toes wet in this field.
  
  What I liked about this book:
  1. It was full of interesting facts.
  2. The figures and illustrations.
  3. The authors made an effort to simplify the writing and make it entertaining.
  
  What needs to be improved:
  
  1. The quality of the writing is uneven. It seems that from chapter 21 on they didn't bother to do as extended an editing as in the first twenty chapters, and from then on the book positively drags, respeats itself unnecessarily, and many of those later chapters could have been condensed into no more than five and still give the same content.
  2. It seems that the authors wanted to simplify the math so much that some of their examples don't make any sense and they don't show a systematic method to go about solving them. For me this was not a big deal because I am reading the book for enjoyment and informational purposes only, but I can see how that would cause problems for a student that is using the book for her course work.
  
  In summary, although I liked this book very much in terms of content, I think that it could be improved as a text book.
• 
  Audrey

  Honestly not bad for a textbook, especially one that offers a free(!!!) digital version. The authors work hard to engage students with quirky anecdotes, which made things slightly more interesting but also increased the difficulty of using this as just a reference for the facts.
• 
  Sigrid

  I don’t normally give reviews, but I felt obligated to make one for this book.
  Obviously, I read this as a textbook. And if I could give it zero stars, I would. It is, by far, the worst textbook I've ever laid eyes on. If this is required text for your astronomy class, strongly urge the science department head to reconsider requiring this book and to find a better one. And I suggest, if it is required and without supplemental information/text, to find a different book altogether to do the bulk of your learning from. I managed to get a B in my astronomy class, no thanks to this book, as I used other resources and my lab instructor (as my lecture instructor was nearly as bad as the book).
  
  The Pros:
  -The book is free if you use the digital/online versions.
  -If you want the hard bound book, it costs less than $60.
  -It’s in full color with loads of fantastic pictures.
  -The digital/versions have links within the text so you can go directly to the spot the authors are linking to.
  
  The Cons:
  -The book (better called a tome) weighs nearly 6 pounds and is almost 1200 pages long – which does not play well with a full course load fitting into your backpack. This could easily be cut by two thirds by removing all of the long-winded, circuitous, and redundant sections.
  -The print was far too small (on both the hard copy and the online).
  -The hard copy’s pages are printed on paper that creates a glare no matter the lighting type, angle, or brightness.
  -There were so many grammatical and syntaxical errors I thought, at times, I was reading a collection of I Can Has Cheezburger cat memes.
  -The authors tried very hard to be funny, which I can appreciate, but they failed epically 9 times out of 10. The jokes were so non-sequitur and nebulous (no pun intended) that I ended up needing to re-read the section to pick out the material I was supposed to be learning from the crap taking up space on the page.
  -The authors proclaimed the difficulty to comprehend concepts so frequently it almost seemed like they were whining about how difficult it is to be an astronomer (much like how a complacent or jaded office worker complains about how dull and unfulfilling their job is).
  
  In summation:
  -The price tag is right, but does a student NO good if they end up needing to re-take the class because of bad writing and bad teaching.
  
• 
  Lindsey

  Really amazingly written for people who are not science majors. I took a physical science course that focused on the planets, and the questions, as well as the explanations, were very easy to understand and work through. I worried about not being able to get through the book because it was likely to be dense, but as someone who is incredibly busy (full-time student, part-time work, and taking care of my family, plants, pets, etc), it worked out great!
• 
  Makayla MacGregor

  Wonderfully concise introduction to core topics of astronomy. Plus it had all sorts of unexpectedly funny parts — seriously, some of these chapters were actually hilarious: "A white dwarf star might make impressive engagement present you could ever see, although any attempt to mine the diamond-like material inside would crush an ardent lover instantly!" (23.1). 100% would refer back to this text if I needed to understand basic ideas of how galaxies, black holes, stars, etc work.
• 
  Spencer Bounds

  One of the best textbooks I've ever seen, on any subject, and that's before you take into account that it's FREE! (Digital download is, anyway. I also rented a hardback copy from Amazon for like 30 bucks. If I had to do it again, I'd be willing to pay substantially more -- it's that good!) For my intro Astronomy course.
• 
  Mehul Jangir

  A bit too heavy at times, and way too much extra material that is exciting but definitely can't be done in a single day or such. Got some really nice visuals and challenging quantitative problems, definitely would recommend as a free astronomy textbook available on the internet.
• 
  Lance Schonberg

  A very good general survey of the basic areas of astronomy. Worked well for the introductory courses I took this year with lots of detail on every topic studied and more depth than offered in lectures.
• 
  Vivian Felso

  This book is such an awesome free resource. It's best for someone who is unfamiliar with astronomy, but if you already know a lot you can simply go to the sections you are interested in. I went from learning that the moon doesn't rise every night to understanding the basics of black holes.
• 
  Jinny

  Only reason I'd give it any less is because I was graded on the material. Otherwise a really great reference for the basics.
• 
  Chloe

  textbook for class. finally finished with the semester!!!! :D
• 
  Virginia

  I really enjoyed reading Astronomy, and I'd highly recommend checking it out!
• 
  Peter Baumgartner

  I can recommend this voluminous textbook (1188 pages!) wholeheartedly. The book includes fantastic high-quality pictures and is written in a very understandable language. You don't need special knowledge to enjoy this book.
  
  Each of the 30 chapters starts with an overview and a motivation why the subject of this chapter is important for real life. Each section of a chapter outlines the learning outcomes. The book has many links to engaging additional material (simulations, interactive websites, animations and microworlds).
  
  All chapters end with a review of the most important key terms, a summary and with references for further explorations (links to books, articles, websites, and videos). As a textbook which can be used as teaching material, it includes also activities for collaborative group work and exercises (review questions, thought questions and problems to solve).
  
  The best of it: The book is licensed under a
  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 and the Kindle book edition is free of charge! You will get other free editions (ePub, PDF) with additional material on the
  OpenStax-Website of the Rice-University.
• 
  Holly The Libra

  Had to read for a course but very informative and made all the challenging concepts easy to grasp.
• 
  Alan Lewis

  Very nice survey course. Worked for me as a review of coursework completed in the late 70s. Updated some topics and presented some more current content.
  
  Kindle version was free