Which book should i get?

[Kronos831 64]

Hey guys! Its been 8 months since i ve started the hobby of astronomy.I would like to dig deeper now,i am looking for a book in astrophysics that involves mostly formulas and mathematics.With so many books in the market its hard to defferentiate science books from just books with information about the subject 

Thanks!

-Kronos

[George Jones 341]

45 minutes ago, Kronos831 said:

Hey guys! Its been 8 months since i ve started the hobby of astronomy.I would like to dig deeper now,i am looking for a book in astrophysics that involves mostly formulas and mathematics.With so many books in the market its hard to defferentiate science books from just books with information about the subject

 

When you say "mostly formulas and mathematics", do you mean including calculus, or no calculus?

[Oldfort 200]

Can you narrow down your interests a bit?  Astrophysics is a broad subject.  Wikipedia defines it as follows

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that employs the principles of physics and chemistry "to ascertain the nature of the astronomical objects, rather than their positions or motions in space".^[1][2] Among the objects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background.^[3][4] Emissions from these objects are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, astrophysicists apply concepts and methods from many disciplines of physics, including classical mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics.

 

Any book that involves mostly "formulas and mathematics" is likely to assume a deep backgound knowledge of the underlying physics or chemistry, and also be relatively narrow in focus.

For example, a classic text on stellar atmospheres, "Theory of Stellar Atmospheres: an In troduction to non-equilibrium quantitative spectroscopic analysis" by Hubeny and Mihalas, needs understanding of quantum mechanics, special relativity and spectroscopy to name a few topics.  The book runs to over 900 pages.

 

[saac 2,478]

Sounds like you may be looking for some undergraduate text books.

 

Jim 

[Kronos831 64]

Um , just saw your guys s replies and i have to say that im a little baffled..im about to beggin the 10th grade and have not yet learned calculus,i am thinking of entering a Panhellenic astronomy contest in February (The questions will have to do with The stars,the globe,the solar system,the universe,galaxies and recent astronomy. News )and know a bit about everything, that meaning that i know the basic functions of things, just want to get in a little deeper in the math part.(For any of those who know  DrPhysicsa/YouTube/), i would prefer a mathematical level close of those to his cosmology video playlist.just begginer math with a tiny bit of calculus

[Mick J 656]

Hi Kronos831,  this thread links to a free download in a number of formats (start with the pdf perhaps), I read a little bit most days.........  as it's free and easy reading you can evaluate it quickly  (I get the impression it's high school stuff).  All the very best with your competition.

[Whirlwind 199]

2 hours ago, Kronos831 said:

Um , just saw your guys s replies and i have to say that im a little baffled..im about to beggin the 10th grade and have not yet learned calculus,i am thinking of entering a Panhellenic astronomy contest in February (The questions will have to do with The stars,the globe,the solar system,the universe,galaxies and recent astronomy. News )and know a bit about everything, that meaning that i know the basic functions of things, just want to get in a little deeper in the math part.(For any of those who know  DrPhysicsa/YouTube/), i would prefer a mathematical level close of those to his cosmology video playlist.just begginer math with a tiny bit of calculus

Some of the concepts in Astronomy and the maths used can still be 'basic' in its application.  For example exoplanet work uses very basic principles of Newtons and Kepler's laws.  You could try something like A student's guide to the mathematics of astronomy which has the basic concepts but is relatively calculus light and shows how you can measure distance by a very simplistic method (but is what is used by Gaia).  The real trick with Astronomy is making sure you minimise your noise in the data and that's where a lot of fancy maths comes into play (assuming you aren't considering extreme physics objects).

[saac 2,478]

5 hours ago, Kronos831 said:

Um , just saw your guys s replies and i have to say that im a little baffled..im about to beggin the 10th grade and have not yet learned calculus,i am thinking of entering a Panhellenic astronomy contest in February (The questions will have to do with The stars,the globe,the solar system,the universe,galaxies and recent astronomy. News )and know a bit about everything, that meaning that i know the basic functions of things, just want to get in a little deeper in the math part.(For any of those who know  DrPhysicsa/YouTube/), i would prefer a mathematical level close of those to his cosmology video playlist.just begginer math with a tiny bit of calculus

In that case then you could try some of the GCSE Astronomy books. The General Certificate Secondary Education (GCSE) is a high school certificate offered in England usually taken by pupils aged 16 or about.  Im not familiar with the course myself (it's not run in Scotland) but it may be a good start for you.   The course specification will give detail on what the course covers. 

Jim 

GCSE Astronomy Books Amazon UK

GCSE Course Specification (Edecxel)

 

[Tiki 96]

'Universe' by Freedman and Kaufmann. A bit pricey but well worth it. Packed full of all sorts of info and some basic formulas.

[Michael Kieth Adams 0]

Subscribe to scientific American, I know not a lot on astronomy but what there is is good.  Also science is interesting.  Subscribe to astronomy periodicals also but do not be one  dimensional.  Life does not just have one side.

[jetstream 7,173]

A very interesting read is "QED: the strange theory of light and matter" by Feynman. It describes how light behaves and this is what we see in the eyepiece so...

Thanks @andrew s for recommending this great book to me years ago.