Fundamentals of astronomy / C. Barbieri.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barbieri, Cesare, 1942-

Contributor:

Craig M. Merrihue Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Astronomy--Textbooks.

Astronomy.

Astrophysics--Textbooks.

Astrophysics.

Genre:

Textbooks.

Physical Description:

366 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2007.

Summary:

Providing a broad overview of foundational concepts, Fundamentals of Astronomy covers topics ranging from spherical astronomy to celestial mechanics, closing with two chapters that discuss elements of astronomical photometry and spectroscopy. Supplementary and explanatory notes at the end of each chapter provide references to material published in scientific journals, and solved and unsolved exercises allow you to check your understanding of the material. Broad in coverage, the book presents arguments from classical astronomy, such as spherical astronomy, that form the foundation for future work in the field.

Features: Provides an introductory vision of arguments from spherical astronomy to celestial mechanics to astronomical photometry and spectroscopy, Presents the information at an introductory level without sacrificing scientific rigor, Includes worked examples, references, and Web site evaluations, Covers rules for transforming coordinates from one system to another, Discusses the diurnal rotation and annual revolution of the Earth to allow understanding of the several definitions of time used in astronomy, Gives several operative definitions of time together with the transformations among them, Examines the influence of the Earth's atmosphere on the apparent coordinates of the stars and on the shape of their images, Explains the dynamics of two bodies under their mutual gravitational attraction.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Spherical Astronomy

1.1 Elements of Plane Trigonometry 1

1.2 Some Properties of Plane Triangles 4

1.3 Elements of Spherical Trigonometry 5

1.4 Cartesian and Polar Coordinates 8

1.5 Terrestrial Latitude and Longitude on the Spherical Earth 10

1.6 Elements of Vector Calculus 13

Chapter 2 Astronomical Reference Systems

2.1 The Alt-Azimuth System 22

2.2 The Hour Angle and Declination System 29

2.3 The Equatorial System 31

2.4 The Ecliptic System 34

2.5 The Galactic System 36

Chapter 3 Transformations of Coordinates

3.1 Transformations by Matrix Rotation 41

3.2 Transformations by Spherical Trigonometry 46

3.3 Some Examples and Applications 47

Chapter 4 The Movements of the Earth and the Astronomical Times

4.1 The Movements of the Earth 53

4.2 The Sidereal Time (ST) 54

4.3 The Solar Time and the Equation of Time 55

4.4 The Universal Time (UT) 59

4.5 The Tropical Year and the Rates of ST and UT 59

4.6 The Year and the Julian Calendar 61

4.7 The Besselian Year or Annus Fictus 61

4.8 The Seasons 62

4.9 The Julian Date 63

Chapter 5 The Movements of the Fundamental Planes

5.1 First Dynamical Considerations 69

5.2 The Precession of the Equinox 71

5.3 The Movements of the Fundamental Planes 74

5.4 First-Order Effects of the Precession on the Stellar Coordinates 75

5.5 The Nutation 80

5.6 Approximate Formulae for General Precession and Nutation 84

5.7 Newcomb's Rotation Formulae for Precession 85

5.8 Precession and Position Angles 86

Chapter 6 Dynamics of Earth's Rotation

6.1 Newton's Lunisolar Precession 91

6.2 The Lunisolar Torque 94

6.3 The Precessional Potential 97

6.4 The Earth's Free Rotation 100

6.5 Recent Developments 108

Chapter 7 Aberration of Light

7.1 The Solar Aberration 113

7.2 The Annual Aberration 117

7.3 Lorentz Transformations 120

7.4 Effects of Annual Aberration on the Stellar Coordinates 121

7.5 The Diurnal Aberration 124

7.6 Planetary Aberration 125

7.7 The Gravitational Deflection of Light 126

Chapter 8 The Parallax

8.1 The Trigonometric Parallax 131

8.2 The Diurnal Parallax 132

8.3 Solar and Lunar Parallaxes 138

8.4 The Annual Parallax 140

8.5 Secular and Dynamical Parallaxes 144

Chapter 9 Radial Velocities and Proper Motions

9.1 Radial Velocities 150

9.2 Proper Motions 153

9.3 Variation of the Equatorial Coordinates 156

9.4 Interplay between Proper Motions and Precession Constants 158

9.5 Astrometric Radial Velocities 159

9.6 Apex of Stellar Motions and Group Parallaxes 160

9.7 The Peculiar Motion of the Sun 162

9.8 Secular and Statistical Parallaxes 164

9.9 Differential Rotation of the Galaxy and Oort's Constants 166

Chapter 10 The Astronomical Times

10.1 The Sidereal Time ST 171

10.2 The Solar Time T[Characters not reproducible] 172

10.3 The Year 173

10.3.1 Tropical Year 174

10.3.2 Besselian Year B, or Annus Fictus 174

10.3.3 Sidereal Year 175

10.3.4 Anomalistic Year 175

10.3.5 Draconic and Gaussian Years 176

10.4 The Dynamical Time 176

10.5 The Atomic Time 179

Chapter 11 The Terrestrial Atmosphere

11.1 The Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere 183

11.2 The Refraction 185

11.3 Effects of Refraction on the Apparent Coordinates 190

11.4 The Chromatic Refraction of the Atmosphere 190

11.5 Relationships between Refraction Index, Pressure and Temperature 192

11.6 Scintillation and Seeing 193

Chapter 12 The Two-Body Problem

12.1 The Barycentric Treatment 199

12.2 The Gravitational Attraction 204

12.3 The Relative Movement 206

12.4 Planetary Masses from Kepler's Third Law 210

12.5 Escape Velocity 211

12.6 Some Considerations on Artificial Satellites 213

Chapter 13 Orbital Elements and Ephemerides

13.1 Kepler's Equation 217

13.2 Ephemerides from the Orbital Elements 220

13.3 Planetary Configurations and Titius-Bode Law 222

13.4 Orbital Elements from the Observations 225

13.5 Application to Visual Binary Stars 228

Chapter 14 Elements of Perturbation Theories

14.1 Perturbations of the Planetary Movements 236

14.2 Planet Plus Small Moon 240

14.3 Case Earth-Moon 241

14.4 The Lunar Month and the Librations 245

14.5 The Case Planet Plus Planet 248

14.6 The Restricted Circular Three-Body Problem 250

14.7 A Nonspherical Body Plus a Small Nearby Satellite 255

14.8 Other Interesting Cases 258

Chapter 15 Eclipses and Occultations

15.1 Moon's Phases 264

15.2 Conditions for the Occurrence of an Eclipse 265

15.3 Solar Eclipses 266

15.4 Lunar Eclipses 268

15.5 Besselian Elements and Magnitude of the Eclipse 270

15.6 Number and Repetitions of Eclipses 272

15.7 Stellar Occultations 274

Chapter 16 Elements of Astronomical Photometry

16.1 Visual Magnitudes 282

16.2 Extension of the Definition of Magnitude 283

16.2.1 The Reflectivity of the Optics and Transmissivity of Filters 284

16.2.2 The Efficiency of the Detectors 287

16.3 Extinction by the Earth's Atmosphere 290

16.4 The Black Body 292

16.5 Color Indices and Two-Color Diagrams 297

16.6 Calibration of the Apparent Magnitudes in Physical Units 300

16.7 Apparent Diameters and Absolute Magnitudes of the Stars 301

16.8 The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 304

16.9 Interstellar Absorption 306

16.10 Extension to the Bodies of the Solar System 309

16.11 Radiation Quantities 311

Chapter 17 Elements of Astronomical Spectroscopy

17.1 Spectroscopic Techniques 320

17.2 The Analysis of the Spectral Lines 323

17.3 Detailed Balance and the Boltzmann Equation 328

17.4 The Saha Equation 330

17.5 Criteria of Spectral Classification of Stars 335

17.6 The Harvard and the MK Classification Schemes 337

17.7 Low Temperature Stars 342

17.8 Peculiarities 343

17.9 Relationship between the MK Classification and Photometric Parameters 344.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-356) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Craig M. Merrihue Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0750308869

OCLC:

63277869

Publisher Number:

9780750308861

Online:

Publisher description