This is volume 2 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research, covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on “Astronomical Techniques, Software, and Data” edited by Howard E. Bond presents accessible review chapters on Astronomical Photometry, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Infrared Astronomy Fundamentals, Astronomical Polarimetry: Polarized Views of Stars and Planets, Sky Surveys,Techniques of Radio Astronomy,Radio and Optical Interferometry: Basic Observing Techniques and Data Analysis, Absolute Calibration of Spectrophotometric Standard Stars,Virtual Observatories, Data Mining, and Astroinformatics, Statistical Methods for Astronomy, Numerical Techniques in Astrophysics.

"Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World" takes twenty-five journeys through space, back in time and into human history. We begin with the simplest sight of the Tycho Crater on the Moon, through a repeat of Galileo's observations of Jupiter's moons, and then move out towards the nebulae, stars, and galaxies. The astronomical observations repeat the original groundbreaking discoveries that have changed our understanding of science and ourselves.

A valuable reference that fills a number of niches including that of a buyer's guide, technical desk reference and observer's field guide. It documents the past market and its evolution, right up to the present day. In addition to appealing to practical astronomers - and potentially saving them money - it is useful both as a historical reference and as a detailed review of the current market place for this bustling astronomical consumer product.

Celestial Delights is essentially a 'TV Guide' for teh sky. This will be its third edition. This title, which has aggregated sales of about 20,000 copies to date in its two previous editions and has found a niche with skygazers, is much awaited.

For anyone artistically inclined, observing the Moon and attempting to sketch or paint it can easily become a passion. The Moon presents a broad array of tone, texture, and form. Capturing this in a painting or sketch at the eyepiece of a telescope – or even with binoculars – develops observational skills, leaves a record of the observation, and can also be a delightful and rewarding pastime. However, the choice of media available is extensive (acrylic paint, oils, pen, charcoal, etc., and even computer art programs), and there is no existing text that fully explains all lunar sketching and painting techniques in each respective medium. This beautiful and graphically rich book fulfills this requirement. It presents detailed step-by-step instructions, in the form of illustrated tutorials for every major medium employed to represent the Moon. It also provides practical advice on how to sketch outdoors at night (not ideal conditions for an artist!).

The discovery of a gradual acceleration in the moon’s mean motion by Edmond Halley in the last decade of the seventeenth century led to a revival of interest in reports of astronomical observations from antiquity. These observations provided the only means to study the moon’s ‘secular acceleration’, as this newly-discovered acceleration became known. This book contains the first detailed study of the use of ancient and medieval astronomical observations in order to investigate the moon’s secular acceleration from its discovery by Halley to the establishment of the magnitude of the acceleration by Richard Dunthorne, Tobias Mayer and Jérôme Lalande in the 1740s and 1750s. Making extensive use of previously unstudied manuscripts, this work shows how different astronomers used the same small body of preserved ancient observations in different ways in their work on the secular acceleration. In addition, this work looks at the wider context of the study of the moon’s secular acceleration, including its use in debates of biblical chronology, whether the heavens were made up of æther, and the use of astronomy in determining geographical longitude. It also discusses wider issues of the perceptions and knowledge of ancient and medieval astronomy in the early-modern period. This book will be of interest to historians of astronomy, astronomers and historians of the ancient world.

In Small Astronomical Observatories, Patrick Moore has collected descriptions of amateur and small professional observatories currently in use in Europe and America, showing how many astronomers have built their own observatory, often with effective and sometimes extraordinary improvisations to reduce the cost. There is a photograph of each, along with details of its construction and a foreword written by Patrick Moore. In addition to providing a fascinating study for its own sake, Small Astronomical Observatories offers a unique fund of ideas and practical details for anyone who wants to build an amateur or small professional observatory.

Magnetism is one of the basic properties of matter. Mankind has trav­ elled a long road in discovering and utilizing magnetism, and in this respect the ancient Chinese people have made outstanding contribu­ tions. In the book 'Lu's Spring and Autumn', written near the end of the Warring States Period, i. e. in the third century B. C. , there is a statement on the "attraction of iron by lodestones". So at that time it was known that magnets can attract ferromagnetic material. At the be­ ginning ofthe first century A. D. , viz. in the early years ofthe East Hang Dynasty, the famous scholar Wang Chong wrote in his masterpiece 'Len Hen' that the handle of a magnetic dipper pointed to the south. It was thus discovered at the time that magnets can point to the poles of the geomagnetic field. At the beginning of the twelfth century, during the reign of Emperor Hui of the Sung Dynasty, in the two books written by Zhu Yo and Xu Jin, respectively, there are descriptions of the com­ pass used in navigation. This tells us that the application of compasses was rather widespread at that time. The distinguished scientist Sen Go (1031-1085) discovered the declination of the terrestrial magnetic field. This is four hundred and more years earlier than its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 during his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Such facts as these manifest the important contributions of ancient China to global civilization.

It is the customary practice to report the major events of a General Assembly -the Invited Discourses, Joint Discussions and Joint Commission Meetings in Highlights of Astronomy. Vol. 8 reports the highlights of the XXth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, 1988 August 2-11, Baltimore, USA. The present volume contains the 3 Invited Discourses and papers presented at 7 Joint Discussion Meetings and 6 Joint Commission Meetings. Two Joint Commission Meetings will be reported elsewhere -JCM5 Spectroscopy of Individual Stars in Globular Clusters and the Early Chemical Evolution of our Galaxy (in summary only here, published by the Imprimerie de l'Observatoire de Paris) and JCM7 Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds (see Transactions of the IAU, Vol.XXB, report of Commission 37). I am most grateful to the authors of the invited discourses R.M. West and V.I. Moroz, M. Schmidt and M. Rees for sending me the manuscripts so promptly. I am also indebted to the Chairmen of the Joint Discussion and Joint Commission Meetings for their organisation of the meetings and for the assembly of their material for publication. Unfortunately the deadline for receipt of manuscripts coincided with an extended postal strike in France which seriously hindered the preparation of the volume for publication.

IAU Symposium Number 52 on Interstellar Dust and Related Topics was held at Albany, N.Y., on the campus of the State University of New York at Albany from May 29 to June 2, 1972. The members of the Organizing Committee were: Dr A. D. Code, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., U.S.A. Dr B. D. Donn, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., U.S.A. Dr A. Elvius, Stockholm Observatory, Saltsjobaden, Sweden. Dr T. Gehrels, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., U.S.A. Dr J. M. Greenberg (Chairman), State University of New York at Albany, Albany, N.Y., U.S.A. Dr H. C. van de Hulst, Sterrewacht, Leiden, Holland. Dr S. B. Pikel'ner, Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow, U.S.S.R. Dr E. E. Sal peter, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.A. Dr B. E. Turner, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Va., U.S.A. The suggestion was first made in 1971 that a symposium on interstellar grains would be timely. The response to the first preliminary announcement, which was sent out on November 29, 1971, was well beyond our expectations. The meeting was locally sponsored by the State University and by Dudley Observatory. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation con­ tributed along with the JAU. There were 158 participants of whom 49 were from 15 countries outside the United States. A total of 92 papers were presented.

THE MOON IX PREFACE TO THE SPRINGER EDITION When this collection of Babylonian astronomical purpose of column of the lunar ephemerides (by texts was published in 1955 (a date omitted by Aaboe) and the explanation of the method of computing the eclipse text ACT No. 6o (by Hamilton mistake from the title page), it contained all texts of this type that I could lay my hands on. As was to be and Aaboe). Some of these advances I have tried to incorporate into my History of Ancient Mathematical expected, the past 25 years provided more fragments, identified by A. Sachs and A. Aaboe in the British Astronomy (1975), which should be used as a guide to Museum and listed below. Also, some new joins the more recent literature. could be made and some errors of mine corrected. My sincerest thanks go to Springer-Verlag for Nevertheless, I think one still can consider the making this work again available to students of material of 1955 to be representative of what has been ancient astronomy. The Institute for Advanced preserved of the mathematical astronomy of the Study, which together with Brown University has Seleucid period. supported my work for more than four decades, has In the meantime, far more progress has been made graciously given its permission for this reprint. in our understanding of Babylonian astronomy, mainly by the publications of Aaboe, Hamilton, Maeyama, Sachs, van der Waerden, and others. As an Princeton 0.

This book discusses the study of astronomy in different cultures, applied historical astronomy and history of multi-wavelength astronomy, and the genesis of recent research. It contains peer-reviewed papers gathered from the International Conference on Oriental Astronomy 9 (ICOA-9) held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, India. It covers the areas like megalithic and other prehistoric astronomy, astronomical records in ancient texts, astronomical myths and architecture, astronomical themes in numismatics and rock art, ancient astronomers and their instruments, star maps and star catalogues, historical records and observations of astronomical events, calendars, calendrical science and chronology, the relation between astronomy and mathematics, and maritime astronomy. This book will be a valuable complement to a future generation of students and researchers who develop an interest in the field of Asian and circum-Pacific history of astronomy.

In the twenty-first century, the debate about life on other worlds is quickly changing from the realm of speculation to the domain of hard science. Within a few years, as a consequence of the rapid discovery by astronomers of planets around other stars, astronomers very likely will have discovered clear evidence of life beyond the Earth. Such a discovery of extraterrestrial life will change everything.