Astronomers selected an uncluttered area of the sky in the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Bear) and pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a single spot for 10 days. The many, separate exposures combined made the Deep Field image above. (Image courtesy of R. Williams, as presented on
NASA's
Astronomy Picture of the Day web site.)
Introduction to Astronomy provides a quantitative introduction to physics of the solar system, stars, interstellar medium, the galaxy, and universe, as determined from a variety of astronomical observations and models.
Topics include: planets, planet formation; stars, the Sun, "normal" stars, star formation; stellar evolution, supernovae, compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes), plusars, binary X-ray sources; star clusters, globular and open clusters; interstellar medium, gas, dust, magnetic fields, cosmic rays; distance ladder; galaxies, normal and active galaxies, jets; gravitational lensing; large scaling structure; Newtonian cosmology, dynamical expansion and thermal history of the Universe; cosmic microwave background radiation; big-bang nucleosynthesis. No prior knowledge of astronomy necessary.