This lovely little volume is a gift that keeps on giving. Its essays are simple, elegant, soulful, inspiring. And thought-provoking. You may well find yourself searching your own Christmas memories, and finding gems you had long forgotten. Which is what this book is all about -- seeing, hearing, remembering those things we take for granted, and cherishing them anew. This is a book to feed the heart, and the soul. And it's just the right size for stocking stuffing!

The kind of collection that is a great gift during the holidays for anyone - it reminds us of the spirit of the season and connects us to our past, our hopes, and the more important meaning of our lives! Great gift for family members, co-workers, neighbors and for anyone on your list!!

Great reference for all aspects of this subject. Use it every week. Highly recommended for novice-expert.

Its even better than the previous edition. Check my comment in the previous edition's review. Good work Roger Jennings and Group.

Along with Robert Cowart & Kenneth Greg's book on the WindowsNT Bible which is for beginners, this book by Roger Jennings is the BEST that is available for NT.

Don't bother with this book. I used it for an intro-level astro course, along with Frank Shu's Physical Universe. In the exact words of my professor, the only reason we even had to buy this book was because Shu's was written 20 years ago and is slightly out of date.... we used Shu for important concepts and this for basically nothing other than revising what is in Shu with more up-to-date information. This book is kind of expensive to be simply a tool for updating Shu (which, btw, is a great book)... also, the high number of errors and typos really make this book a "don't bother"

This book is a good compromise between the less analytical texts and some of the books geared toward astonomy majors. It is not a great book but I felt it was up to date and comprehensive. One note though, the authors assume you have a good grounding in undergrad math and physics. On several occasions I had to pull out one of my math or physics texts to review a subject so I could understand the material being presented.

This is not a MEATY text. It is a good INTRODUCTORY text that provides a decent overview of general astronomy, including: basic celestial mechanics, the solar system, absorption/emission, stars, H-R diagram, galaxies, interstellar medium, evolution, Hubble's law, active galaxies, cosmology. The level of detail seems appropriate for a survey course. For example, the authors do a good job of describing basic spectral issues (absorption, emission, line broadening, Boltzmann, the Saha equation, optical depth, etc), but they do not provide a detailed discussion of stellar atmospheres. If you have had an introduction to astronomy and want more depth, then look at Bohm-Vitense's books, Elmgreen's Galaxies & Galactic Structure, etc.