Astronomy Books for Adults

Part of the Discovering the Universe Curriculum Collection.

General Astronomy and Astrophysics

Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Earth and Space. New York: Fawcett Books, 1993.

Bartusiak, Marcia. Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony: Listening to the Sounds of Space-Time.Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2000.

Maury, Jean-Pierre. Newton: The Father of Modern Astronomy. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1990.

Murray, Carl D. Solar System Dynamics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Narlikar, Jayant Vishnu. An Introduction to Cosmology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 

Raymo, Chet. 365 Starry Nights: An Introduction to Astronomy for Every Night of the Year. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Shklovskii, I. S., and Carl Sagan. Intelligent Life in the Universe. San Francisco: Holden-Day, 1966.

Tyson, Neil de Grasse, Charles Liu, and Robert Irion. One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2000. 

VanCleave, Janice. Janice VanCleave’s Gravity. New York: Wiley, 1991.

Wald, Robert M. Space, Time, and Gravity: The Theory of the Big Bang and Black Holes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Light and Telescopes

Beatty, J. Kelly, editor, et al. The New Solar System. New York: Sky Pub., 1999. 

Lynch, David. Color and Light in Nature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 

Moore, Patrick. Eyes on the Universe: The Story of the Telescope. New York: Springer, 1997.

Murphy, Pat. The Color of Nature (An Exploratorium Book). San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996. 

Price, Fred W. The Planet Observer’s Handbook. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 

Richards, Austin. Alien Vision: Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum With Imaging Technology. Bellingham, WA: Spie Press, 2001.

Tucker, Wallace. The Cosmic Inquirers: Modern Telescopes and Their Makers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986. 

VanCleave, Janice. Janice VanCleave’s Astronomy for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments That Really Work.New York: Wiley, 1991.

Digital Imaging and 3-D Universe

Hirshfeld, Alex. Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos. New York: W.H. Freeman, 2001.

Petersen, Carolyn Collins. Hubble Vision: Further Adventures with the Hubble Space Telescope. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 

Trefil, James. Other Worlds.Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1999.

Developed with the generous support of The Charles Hayden Foundation.