Astronomy Textbook - Big, Beautiful, Free

[Ruud]

There is this free Astronomy textbook from OpenStax College / RICE university:

         Astronomy, Fraknoi, Morrison and Wolff, OpenStax, 2016

It is an introductory level textbook. Each chapter is followed by a list of key terms, a summary, links to articles, videos and websites, group activities and exercises.

1186 pages + index

The book really is free with the option to make a donation to OpenStax.

LINKS
to preview: https://archive.org/details/Astronomy_201904/page/n513/mode/2up
to pdf:        https://archive.org/download/Astronomy_201904/Astronomy-OP_RoX1Ths.pdf  

Below the preview you find different formats than PDF.

Bear in mind that the book is a 150MB download from a slow server. If you have your browser set to open PDFs as they come in, it is better to Right Click and choose Save Linked Content to download the book to a folder on your disk and then check after 15 minutes or so if it has completed.

Enjoy

[RT65CB-SWL]

downloading the .PDF file! 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Philip R

[domstar]

I've read it twice. It's excellent. Just the right level for someone like me and written clearly with occasional humour.

[Neil H]

Down loading now can't wait to read it .Thanks for the heads up 

[Ships and Stars]

Thank you!! 👍

[exe_hibit]

Many thanks, good spot

Likes:

Nice reference book with a good balance of theory and reality.

I like the diagrams and photos, they are really clear and straightforward.

I like the licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)  for if you want to use the material for other purposes (e.g. astronomy club presentations).

Dislike:

I can see it has been peer reviewed but my main gripe with it is the complete lack of referencing of where the source material was collated from. If this is the first edition of a document which is going to be updated it would be good to see the references added in the future. I guess it will depend on who the authors are aiming it at.